Blue and White will be offered the chairmanship of Keren Hayesod, the main fundraising arm for Israel outside the United States.
By GIL HOFFMANWorld Zionist Congress 2020(photo credit: Courtesy)
Right-wing and Orthodox groups completed the process of obtaining a majority in the World Zionist Organization for the first time on Friday.That majority will enable the Right and Orthodox to control key Zionist institutions.They will then negotiate starting on Sunday with Blue and White, Yesh Atid and non-Orthodox religious streams to complete building a wall-to-wall coalition ahead of the World Zionist Congress, which will be held virtually starting on Tuesday.The big winners of the negotiations were Avraham Duvdevani of the religious Zionist Mizrachi World movement and Likud MK Haim Katz, who will split a five-year term as head of the powerful Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund. Their co-chair will be attorney Shlomo Deri, the brother of Shas leader Arye Deri.Current KKL head Danny Atar fought for weeks to keep his post, but he failed due in part to Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, who refused to back him because of past financial irregularities.Blue and White will be offered the chairmanship of Keren Hayesod, the main fundraising arm for Israel outside the US. The party's candidate for the post will be chosen on Sunday."I am not familiar with who are candidates for the post, and [party leader] Benny [Gantz] will only get involved with this tomorrow [Sunday]," Blue and White director-general Agay Yehezkel said.
