Opposition parties, including Yesh Atid, immediately withdrew from the tentative power-sharing deal and blocked votes on other nominations.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

A fragile compromise over leadership appointments at key Zionist institutions collapsed Wednesday night after delegates at the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem learned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair had been nominated for a senior post at the World Zionist Organization.

The deal, which aimed to divide top positions between liberal and conservative blocs, fell apart just hours before it was due to be finalized.

Delegates voted to extend the Congress by two weeks to allow more time for negotiations, though insiders said a revised list could emerge soon.

Culture Minister Miki Zohar, a Likud loyalist and candidate for WZO chairman, announced Yair Netanyahu’s nomination to lead the organization’s information department.

The position reportedly includes a salary and benefits comparable to those of a cabinet minister. Opposition parties, including Yesh Atid, immediately withdrew from the tentative power-sharing deal and blocked votes on other nominations.

The younger Netanyahu, who has spent much of the past two years in Miami, is known for his combative online presence and sharp criticism of his father’s opponents.

He has previously sparred with world leaders, accused Israeli officials of corruption, and aligned with far-right figures abroad. Supporters describe him as a fearless defender of Zionism.

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid said his party “discovered at the last minute” that Likud was attempting to insert Netanyahu “under the table” into a lucrative position, prompting them to scuttle the deal.

Zohar responded that the opposition’s outrage was hypocritical, claiming the left had long used the same institutions for political patronage.

The original agreement would have seen Rabbi Doron Perez, head of the World Mizrachi movement and father of a soldier killed on October 7, assume the WZO chairmanship, while Yesh Atid MK Meir Cohen was slated to lead the Jewish National Fund-KKL before handing the role to Likud midterm.

The collapse has reignited long-standing factional tensions within the 525-member Congress, which allocates about $1 billion annually to global Jewish projects.

The WZO, founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897, remains one of the central forums through which Israel and the Jewish Diaspora shape policy and priorities for the Zionist movement.

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The results will impact key issues such as religious pluralism, funding for Jewish education, settlement expansion, and Israel-Diaspora relations.

By Asaf Elia-Shalev, JTA

Voting opens Monday in an election that gives American Jews a rare chance to directly shape Israel’s future.

The U.S. election for seats in the 39th World Zionist Congress will help determine the balance of power in the legislative authority of a Zionist organization founded by Theodore Herzl 128 years ago.

Influence over $5 billion in funding for Jewish causes is at stake, as is authority over quasi-governmental institutions such as the Jewish Agency, which plays a central role in immigration to Israel, and the Jewish National Fund, which owns 13% of Israeli land.

Any Jewish adult living in the United States can vote between now and May 4 as long as they accept a set of Zionist principles and pay a $5 registration fee.

At the heart of this year’s election is a fierce ideological battle between liberal and right-wing Orthodox factions, each seeking to shape the future of Zionist institutions and their financial priorities at a pivotal time in Israel’s history.

The results will impact key issues such as religious pluralism, funding for Jewish education, settlement expansion, and Israel-Diaspora relations.

“This election is about nothing less than the soul of the State of Israel and the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Josh Weinberg, who heads the campaign for the Reform movement’s liberal slate of candidates.

“There are multiple competing visions over what it means to have a Jewish state and essentially to be Jewish. We can help decide some of those things through a democratic process.”

These are the 21 slates U.S. Jews can vote for in the 2025 World Zionist Congress election

Weinberg’s Vote Reform slate is one of 21 lists vying to capture the 152 seats allocated to American Jewry in the incoming congress, a significant increase over the 15 slates that participated in the last election, five years ago.

Whoever wins will serve alongside 173 representatives selected by Jewish communities across the rest of the Diaspora as well as 200 representatives from Israel, who are chosen by Israeli political parties, according to their share of seats in parliament.

Representing the largest denomination of American Jewry, the Reform slate won a plurality of American votes last time, but it was the surge of Orthodox lists that defined the 2020 election.

The success of Mizrachi, a longstanding slate backed by the institutions of Modern Orthodoxy, and Eretz Hakodesh, a brand new haredi Orthodox list, helped tip the balance at the congress, giving a slight majority for the first time to the right-wing bloc.

Campaigning again this time, Eretz Hakodesh hopes to build on its record.

“We invite all who share our values and beliefs to join us and witness the remarkable impact we have made in recent years,” the slate said in a statement after declining an interview request.

Many of the nine new slates in this election are running on platforms similar to that of Eretz Hakodesh, whether by espousing Orthodox religious values or pro-settlement politics — or both.

One of the factors distinguishing these slates is their demographic focus. Am Yisrael Chai, for example, seeks to represent college students and young professionals.

The Israeli American Council slate, which is affiliated with the eponymous advocacy group, caters to Israeli expats, and Beyachad is for Russian-speaking Jews.

The left has its own slate of Israeli ex-pats, AID Coalition, which is made up of people who support the Israeli protest movement that’s been challenging the government of Benjamin Netanyahu with massive weekly street demonstrations in recent years.

ANU: A New Union, meanwhile, is a new left-wing slate focused on the youth vote.

Jews in the United States lean left as a whole, but that’s no guarantee of representation in the congress because only a small fraction of them vote.

Of nearly 6 million American Jewish adults, only 125,000 voted in the 2020 election, which was a massive increase over the 56,000 votes cast in 2015. The highest rate of participation ever came in 1987, when about 211,000 voters cast their ballots.

Yizhar Hess, vice chairman of the World Zionist Organization, casts the issue of low turnout as a “shande,” or shame, that threatens the pluralism that Zionism was founded on.

He’s hoping he can raise awareness about the election over the next few months by speaking to congregations and other types of gatherings.

“If the congress is called ‘the parliament of the Jewish people’ it should reflect the makeup of world Jewry,” he said. “That’s why I am investing many hours every day in order to convince the Jews of the diaspora to make their voice heard.”

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The ZOA celebrated Beinart’s decision to step down as an alternate to the World Zionist Congress.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

The Zionist Organization of America, led by Morton Klein, expressed its approval on Monday of U.S. journalist Peter Beinart’s decision to resign as an alternate to the World Zionist Congress.

“The ZOA is pleased that anti-Israel activist Peter Beinart, who opposes Israel’s existence as a Jewish State and is an anti-Israel propagandist, has taken the right and honorable action,” the ZOA said in a statement.

“Beinart was a member of the far leftwing ‘Hatikvah’ slate, which includes the Israel-bashing group J Street,” it added.

The organization noted that its slate at the World Zionist Congress has brought a case against Beinart, “Hatikvah,” and others who promoted partial boycotts of Israel. It said the Eretz HaKodesh slate had brought a separate case as well. The cases were brought internally before Zionist judicial tribunals.

It’s not clear if the cases played a part in Beinart’s decision to resign his position.

Beinart has been in the headlines for an article he wrote for Jewish Currents on July 8 titled, “Yavne: A Jewish Case for Equality in Israel-Palestine,” in which he argued for abandoning the idea of a Jewish state.

However, the ZOA focused on Beinart’s advocacy for boycotts against Israel as a pressure tactic on Israel’s government.

“Peter Beinart is notorious for leading and co-signing a public call in 2016 for a ‘targeted boycott of all goods and services from all Israeli settlements’ in areas to which the Jewish people have the sole sovereign rights (which Beinart falsely and wrongly calls ‘the Occupied Territories’),” the ZOA said.

“Beinart’s boycott call also targeted ‘any investments that promote the Occupation.’ (‘Occupation’ is the false and misleading term that Israel’s detractors use to refer to Israel and/or Israel’s lawful territories, over which no other country has had legal sovereignty),” the statement said.

“In October 2019, the WZC Zionist General Council passed a resolution initiated by the ZOA Coalition, which requires the exclusion of organizations, individual delegates, and alternates who directly or indirectly support full or ‘partial’ BDS,” it also said.

The ZOA mentioned Beinart’s new position. “In a horrific action, treasonous to the Jewish people, Beinart also recently called for the elimination of the Jewish State,” it said.

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Last week, Atlantic columnist Peter Beinart wrote a piece titled, “Why I No Longer Believe in a Jewish State.”

The post WATCH: Will Peter Beinart attend Zionist Congress after renouncing Jewish State? appeared first on World Israel News.

Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal forces every group that wants to receive monetary aid to sign a pledge that it won’t engage in activity past the 1967 Green Line.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The official international fundraising organization for Israel does not allow its funds to be used in Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights, Israel Hayom reported Sunday.

Any Israeli group that receives monetary aid from Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal must sign a pledge stating, “We are not involved and / or engaged, in any way, in activities beyond the borders of the State of Israel as they were before 04.06.1967. And we hereby commit not to engage is such activity using funds from the donation.”

Keren Hayesod says that this condition is necessary for practical, not ideological, reasons.

“Keren Hayesod raises hundreds of millions of dollars all over the world,” the organization said in a statement. “The donations are obtained from independent fundraisers that are legally registered in the various countries. Unfortunately, the existing tax laws in these countries do not allow tax credits for donations beyond the Green Line.

“Of course this is not the policy or ideology of Keren Hayesod, but a matter of international laws that cannot be changed by the organization, and that our donors are subject to.”

Keren Hayesod is under the aegis of the World Zionist Organization, whose policies are decided by the World Zionist Congress (WZC). The WZC is currently holding elections that will affect the management of all of Israel’s national institutions – including Keren Hayesod — over the next five years. Its 525 delegates represent the entire political and religious spectrum of the Zionist movement.

About 38 percent of the delegates are from Israel, in slates that are proportionate to the number of mandates each Zionist party received in the last Knesset elections. The Likud’s Central Committee members are voting Sunday on its party’s representatives to the body that effectively controls how $5 billion is distributed to various cultural, educational, religious and social bodies in Israel.

Coalition chief MK Miki Zohar, who is heading one of the party’s three vying slates, said that this limitation was unacceptable.

“If there was a good reason why I’m running for office, this is it. It is inconceivable that Zionist and national institutions will not recognize Judea and Samaria, the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights as part of Israel. This is a complete contradiction to the fulfillment of the Zionist dream of setting the Land of Israel,” he said, and vowed, “I will work to change this.”

Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal fundraises for Israel in some 45 countries outside of North America. It is one of three so-called “National Institutions” that makes it a quasi-governmental organization.

Established in 1920 to raise money to establish Jewish settlements throughout then-Mandate Palestine, it has supported all the immigration waves to Israel, from Holocaust survivors in the 1940s and Arab countries in the 1950s, to the Russian and Ethiopian waves in the 1990s and on.

Two other major areas of activity are the strengthening of disadvantaged populations through educational and social aid programs, and encouraging a deeper Diaspora-Israel connection via cultural and educational programming overseas and by working with other organizations to help fund trips to Israel such as Birthright and Masa.

The 38th World Zionist Congress is currently scheduled to meet in Jerusalem in October.

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“We’re deeply worried about the idea of non-Zionist progressives running for the World Zionist Congress,” Karma Feinstein-Cohen, executive director of World Herut, told World Israel News.

By World Israel News Staff 

“Between January 21 and March 11, 2020, American Jews will have the opportunity to vote online for the Jewish future in Israel and around the world,” says the American Zionist Movement (AZM) on its website.

“Make sure your point of view is represented in the next World Zionist Congress,” says AZM.

“When you vote, you will be able to choose from over a dozen slates representing diverse political beliefs, religious denominations and cultural traditions. Those elected from the United States will join delegates from Israel and around the world at the 38^th World Zionist Congress (WZC) in October 2020, the international ‘parliament of the Jewish people,’ to make decisions regarding key institutions which allocate nearly $1 Billion annually to support Israel and World Jewry,” the movement explains.

Among those jockeying for position to have a greater voice is the left-wing Hatikvah, opposed to expanding an Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria and supportive of establishing a Palestinian state in those areas.

“Hatikvah is the progressive slate. We dream of a just and thriving Jewish democracy and hope for a negotiated two state solution. A vote for Hatikvah is a vote for critical services in Israel and against settlement expansion,” it says on its Facebook page.

The slate says that it stands with Israel’s Labor Party and Meretz. Those parties were leading forces in the Israeli government which signed understandings with the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, leading to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip.

Labor has plummeted from a ruling party to its smallest representation ever in the Knesset. Meretz has also fallen significantly.

Hatikvah complains that while “the World Zionist Organization built essential institutions in the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish settlement in Palestine,” and “has continued to fund youth education, immigrant absorption, and other critical services,” it also “serves as a conduit for the present-day Israeli government to fund settlement expansion” in Judea and Samaria.

“We want an end to the occupation and to the Arab-Israeli conflict,” it says.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of the J Street organization, is on the list, reports JTA. Peter Beinart is also a first-time candidate, the newswire reports. He has expressed support for boycotting products from Israeli settlements.

Also among the candidates on the Hatikvah slate touted on its Facebook page is Jesse Miller, noted as a board member of J Street U at Columbia University in New York, where he is an undergraduate student. J Street U is J Street’s college and university campus organizing arm.

Early this year, past and present members of the J Street U board called for promoting a move to punish Israel for building Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria by cutting U.S. military assistance to the Jewish State. They proposed that every shekel which the Israeli government spends on settlements and [Arab] home demolitions should result in a proportional reduction of American military aid, according to a report by The Intercept.

Speaking at the annual J Street Conference in Washington in October, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, called for transferring a portion of the U.S. military assistance to Israel to humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip instead.

“We’re deeply worried about the idea of non-Zionist progressives running for the World Zionist Congress,” Karma Feinstein-Cohen told World Israel News. She is executive director of World Herut, which is running in the elections on its own slate.

“World Zionist Congress elections take place every five years and the resolutions adopted during the WZC have tremendous impact on Israel and world Jewry. The idea that some of the 13 slates running in the WZC seek to penalize Israel for developing Israeli territory should concern everyone who cares about the Jewish State.

“Criticism of Israeli policy is abundantly fair. But the Hatikvah slate has adopted the J-Street platform that seeks to defund and jeopardize Israel’s development, prosperity and security. That is counter-Zionistic.”

“Beinart and Ben-Ami are taking advantage of the WZC’s openness. Their entry into the arena is less participation than infiltration,” she said.

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