Likud Bid for Yair Netanyahu at WZO Puts Cross-Party Appointments Deal in Peril
Israel’s ruling Likud party moved late Wednesday to install Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s elder son, in a senior post at the World Zionist Organization (WZO), prompting a political firestorm and jeopardizing a cross-party appointments deal for key Zionist institutions. The nomination—reported to include an office, a car, and pay on par with a cabinet minister—was set for a vote that was later postponed two weeks, after partners balked. The dispute centers on how Likud and Yesh Atid would split top roles at the WZO and the Jewish National Fund-KKL, and whether the arrangement survives the controversy.
Culture Minister Miki Zohar defended the choice, writing that for years figures on the left have “worked to appoint relatives and associates to positions in national institutions,” and charging that “suddenly, when it comes to Likud and Netanyahu, it turns into a storm.” He denounced a “disgusting display of malicious hypocrisy” against the younger Netanyahu, who, he said, “merely wanted to promote Zionist advocacy in the Diaspora for the sake of the Jewish people.”
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Opposition parties rejected the move. Yesh Atid called it “a despicable decision” and said it “will not sign any such deal,” while party leader Yair Lapid added: “Won’t happen. Period.” The Democrats’ chairman Yair Golan labeled the nominee “a despicable person who has dedicated his life to destruction and division,” saying “he is unworthy of representing the Jewish people” and pledging “we will not allow this to happen.”
The wrangling threatens a compromise that would have made Rabbi Doron Perez the next WZO chair, with a mid-term handoff to a Yesh Atid representative, and would have placed Yesh Atid lawmaker Meir Cohen at the helm of Jewish National Fund-KKL before a later Likud rotation. Both posts were held by Likud figures in the previous term, a precedent opposition parties say they sought to rebalance through negotiations now at risk of collapsing.
