Labor MK Isaac Herzog on Sunday was formally elected the brand new chief of the Jewish Agency, in opposition to the needs of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Through a present of arms, the venerable company’s Board of Governors unanimously elected Herzog, a former cupboard minister and presently the chief of the opposition, to substitute Nathan Sharansky as its chairman of its govt.
“I take this challenge humbly. I know how difficult and challenging it is,” Herzog stated upon his election.
Herzog, who will want to surrender his Knesset seat, is anticipated to assume workplace later this summer season. It is presently unclear who will substitute him as chief of the opposition on August 1.
Netanyahu wished his confidant Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz to take the place, however 9 out of 10 members of the Jewish Agency’s Leadership Nominating Committee had voted for Herzog and beneficial him to the Board of Governors, which is convening in Jerusalem this week.
“I say to the government and to the prime minister,” Herzog stated minutes after being elected, “we will work together with full cooperation.”
In his acceptance speech, Herzog quoted a well-known saying attributed to Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, which says that “the entire world is a very narrow bridge” however that one shouldn't be afraid to try to cross it.
Leader of opposition Isaac Herzog (standing), Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky (proper) and MK Nachman Shai attend the foyer for strengthening ties with the Jewish world on the Knesset, June 27, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“The world is a very small bridge. And the Jewish Agency in my mind is the narrow bridge that connects the State of Israel and the Jewish people wherever they are. It is that bridge that created the State of Israel, and the bridge brought millions of Jews to the State of Israel and this bridge now has to confront the great challenges that face our people,” he stated.
The reference additionally appeared to pay tribute to his predecessor Sharansky, a former prisoner of Zion within the Soviet Union, who famously sang the Hebrew music primarily based on the Bratslav quote whereas imprisoned within the Gulag.
The Jewish individuals are at a crossroads, Herzog went on, presumably referring to a widening rift between Jews in Israel and the Diaspora, particularly relating to the Western Wall and the refusal of Israel to formally acknowledge non-Orthodox streams of Judaism.
“We have to do whatever we can to unify the Jewish people and make sure it is not split and divided. And we all know what we are talking about,” Herzog stated.
“We have to strengthen the centrality of Israel within the heart of every Jew, especially the young generations; to fight BDS [the anti-Israel Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement], to educate, to connect and to promote aliyah [immigration], and to bring more and more Jews to Israel,” Herzog added.
“A Jew is a Jew is a Jew, and it doesn’t matter to what stream he belongs to or what he wears on his head,” Herzog went on. “We are all one people, and this is what we need to do to preserve and foster the great story of the Jews, and the great story of the State of Israel being the pumping heart of the Jewish people.”
Immediately prior to the vote, World Zionist Organization Chairman Avraham Duvdevani, who headed the Jewish Agency’s Leadership Nominating Committee, defined that he and his colleagues seemed for Sharansky’s alternative for about a yr and half and consulted with the prime minister at varied levels and thought of all of the candidates he proposed.
Herzog, he additionally stated, had been a favourite of the company for a very long time.
“We couldn’t elect somebody more fitting for the chairmanship of the Jewish Agency,” he stated.
Minutes after the vote, President Reuven Rivlin issued a assertion congratulating Herzog on his appointment.
“There are few who understand better than Herzog the challenges facing the Jewish world today, and the need to teach and reinforce Jewish identity, and to strengthen the bonds between Israel and Jews around the world — today more than ever,” Rivlin stated.
“These are far from small challenges, and there are true obstacles to overcome,” he additionally stated.
In ignoring the premier’s needs in selecting its chairman, the Jewish Agency took a very uncommon step. Its management solely as soon as earlier than defied the prime minister’s want and elected one other candidate as chief.
Sources within the company instructed Famzn News on Thursday that selecting Herzog might be understood as a response to government actions which have angered Diaspora Jewry, together with Netanyahu’s reversal of a 2016 choice on pluralistic prayer at Jerusalem’s Western Wall.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu sought to block Herzog’s nomination, regardless of 9 of 10 committee members supporting the previous chief of the Zionist Union party.
On Thursday, after the nomination was introduced, Netanyahu canceled a assembly with Diaspora Jewish leaders and the heads of the Jewish Agency, scheduled for Monday.
It's official: Israeli opposition chief Isaac Herzog invited to head Jewish Agency, in opposition to needs of Netanyahu. pic.twitter.com/Ew2fPTjkgY
— Eylon A. Levy (@EylonALevy) June 21, 2018
When committee members met with Netanyahu to current him with their suggestion, the premier admonished them for failing to meet with Steinitz, his most popular candidate, and requested them to meet with the Likud minister earlier than making their closing suggestion. The committee met with Steinitz on Thursday, however shortly thereafter introduced that it had chosen Herzog.
Officials stated Herzog gave the committee a very convincing presentation on his plans for the company. Steinitz however didn't even reply to the committee’s invitation to seem earlier than it till the premier demanded the assembly on Wednesday.
Sharansky is to step down as head of the Jewish Agency subsequent month, after 9 years within the place.
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz attends the weekly government convention on the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, October 29, 2017. (Ohad Zwigenberg/Flash90)
In addition to Herzog and Steinitz, candidates who had been floated as potential replacements for Sharansky included Zionist Union MK Nachman Shai; deputy diplomacy minister and former US ambassador Michael Oren; former UN ambassadors Dan Gillerman and Ron Prosor; Rivka Carmi, who's president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and Ma’ale Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel.
In March, Netanayhu reportedly beneficial Yohanna Arbib-Perugia, head of the Jerusalem Foundation and a member of the manager of the Jewish Agency, for the place. However, a day later Haaretz reported that Netanyahu withdrew the nomination after she apparently rejected the provide.
In 2016, the government suspended a choice to assure non-Orthodox Jews everlasting entry for pluralistic prayer on the wall, due to stress from ultra-Orthodox leaders.
As a part of the January 2016 settlement, which the cupboard authorised after 4 years of negotiations, the government dedicated to renovating the so-called “Ezrat Yisrael” prayer platform. However, the deal additionally included constructing a widespread entrance to the Western Wall for 3 prayer areas — the Orthodox males’s and girls’s part and the “Ezrat Yisrael” plaza, the place women and men can worship collectively — and for representatives of non-Orthodox streams of Judaism to share within the joint oversight of the pluralistic prayer space.
In June of that yr, after some ultra-Orthodox web sites began to criticize the settlement, the cupboard voted to droop it, backing away from what was perceived to be a diploma of recognition for non-Orthodox streams of Judaism.
The government’s freezing of the deal led to a bitter disaster in Israel-Diaspora ties, with many representatives of world Jewry saying they felt “betrayed” by the Jewish state.
Sharansky has since warned the government of widespread anger over the Wall in addition to over the ultra-Orthodox monopoly over conversions.