The candidate to be selected as that of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid to head the Jewish Agency could be decided by the religious-Zionist organization World Mizrachi.
Bennett and Lapid support Intelligence Services Minister Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid) to succeed new President Isaac Herzog as the Jewish Agency chairman.
However, the decision is not theirs to make but will be made by a 10-member selection committee comprised of five representatives of the World Zionist Organization, three of the Jewish Federations of North America and two of Keren Hayesod-United Jewish Appeal, representing world Jewry outside the US.
The support of nine members of the committee out of 10 is required for a candidate to be chosen. If two committee members oppose Stern, he will lose his chance of receiving the plum post and the race will become wide open.
Stern is thought to have the backing of the Diaspora representatives and the more liberal WZO representatives. If Likud representative Yaakov Hagoel votes against Stern, the deciding vote will be in the hands of the Mizrachi representative chosen Wednesday, World Mizrachi chairman Harvey Blitz.
Sources in Mizrachi admitted that the decision about whether to back Stern would be “very complicated,” considering the wide spectrum of religious Zionism represented by Mizrachi. They noted that although Stern is a religious Zionist himself, his views are controversial.
The Mizrachi board as a whole will make the decision. Bennett was honorary chairman of Mizrachi when he headed the religious-Zionist Bayit Yehudi Party, but he no longer has influence over the party.
There are those who want to block Stern, because he could prevent haredim (the ultra-Orthodox) from gaining disproportionate power in Zionist institutions.
“There is no doubt that the next agency chairman must increase involvement of Diaspora Jewry so they will be represented properly in national Zionist institutions, including the Mizrachi [National-Religious], Reform and Conservative streams,” Stern told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday morning. “It is important they all feel a sense of belonging.”
Lapid already chose former Yisrael Beytenu renegade MK Eli Avidar to be Stern’s successor as intelligence services minister, on the assumption that Stern would receive the agency post.
A final decision on who will become agency chairman will be made when the Zionist Congress convenes at the end of October.
Besides Stern, candidates include former ambassadors to the UN Danny Danon and Ron Prosor, former Diaspora Affairs minister Omer Yankelevitch and Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum. Several other possible candidates have met with agency board of governors head Michael Siegal.
As reported first by Makor Rishon Jewish world correspondent Zvika Klein, WZO chairman Hagoel called an emergency meeting of the WZO Executive on short notice Wednesday morning to choose the organization’s selection committee members.
In the past, the head of the WZO chose the committee members by himself. Hagoel decided to involve the Executive after he came under “significant political pressure from inside and outside the organization.”