World Mizrachi claimed that a final World Zionist Congress coalition agreement had been reached on Wednesday, as Yesh Atid issued a warning against members participating in the allotment of National institution positions and portfolios.
No agreement had yet been announced as signed or adopted in a World Zionist Organization vote, but the normally restrained Mizrachi announced that after two weeks of negotiations since the WZC convention and three failed agreements, a broad deal had been accepted by the congress's various factions.
If officially adopted, Mizrachi CEO Rabbi Doron Perez would become the WZO president, a normally ceremonial role that would reportedly expand to engage in matters of budget and Diaspora relations. Also representing the faction would be Gael Grunewald as the organization’s deputy chair and Education head, and Roi Abecassis as Zionist Jewish Identity department head and Jewish National Fund deputy chair.
“The modern Zionist movement was born out of the very idea of the ingathering of people from all over the world to create a united Jewish nation in our ancient homeland,” Perez said in a statement.
“Specifically in these moments where there are many unprecedented challenges and areas of legitimate debate within our broader Jewish community, we have proven that we are willing and able to put the best interests of the greater Jewish world at the forefront and recognize that love of our people and our covenant of fate must come before anything else.
We may indeed be the smallest of nations but we are the largest family
“World Mizrachi is deeply proud and grateful to be a significant part of the WZO’s leadership in this period where partnership, mutual trust and respect, as well as a sense of national responsibility, are so critical in confronting the many challenges we face,” he said. “We may indeed be the smallest of nations but we are the largest family.”
Culture minister and Likud Israel faction leader Miki Zohar notified slate members on Tuesday that there was a "wall-to-wall agreement." He assured that Likud representatives would serve as the Jewish National Fund chair for half the time, the chair of the settlement division, and the Mount Herzl director.
WZO chair Yaakov Hagoel would reportedly share the chairmanship with a representative of the Liberal Zionist bloc – a position that had originally been reserved for Yesh Atid until they withdrew from the agreement last Wednesday.
Yesh Atid issued a message on Wednesday warning that if party member Gil Segal accepted the chairmanship of JNF, it would mean that he was leaving the party and there would be indications that potential corruption would need to be investigated. The statement added that the party didn't believe that Segal was "part of this."
Segal did not respond to queries by The Jerusalem Post regarding JNF chairmanship or Yesh Atid's statement.
If a new agreement has been reached, it would override the results of last week's vote, which were announced on Tuesday. The WZO announced that a deal had been adopted in a vote that would see Perez serving as its new chairman in rotation with Hagoel, but the vote and the agreement it was based on had already been rendered obsolete thrice over. A new agreement was negotiated during the vote.
After the first coalition agreement was scuttled in response to Zohar's proposal that Prime Minister's son Yair Netanyahu be appointed to the WZO executive, a second agreement was developed with Hagoel's Likud faction. He and his faction had been excluded from the initial agreement, the culmination of a dispute between Likud factions over the movement's leadership and a failure to hold elections.
WZO announced a vote on the agreement favoring Hagoel's faction, but right-wing factions demanded that the vote be delayed until a better agreement could be negotiated. They filed a petition to the WZO supreme court, which determined that the results of the vote wouldn't be publicized until the organization and other factions could file a response. The WZO court determined on Monday that the results could be published, noting that a third agreement had already been negotiated by the parties.
The vote was extended from its deadline last Tuesday to last Wednesday morning, allowing for the third agreement to be negotiated. Slates were confident that the "wall-to-wall" consensus would be approved by the executive, overwriting the results of the WZC delegate vote.
Yet last Wednesday night, Yesh Atid leader Lapid announced that his party would no longer be participating in the coalition, requiring the factions to negotiate a fourth deal over the weekend.
During the last night of the WZC convention, after the first agreement collapsed, the congress voted to technically extend the event by two weeks, an extension that was set to end on Wednesday night.