Ending leadership saga, Rabbi Doron Perez and Yaakov Hagoel to lead WZO; no job for Yair Netanyahu

After a dramatic negotiation process with several surprise turns, the next leadership of the World Zionist Organization has been selected.

Rabbi Doron Perez, chairman of the religious Zionist World Mizrachi movement and father of Cpt. Daniel Perez, who was killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, will split the five-year term with the incumbent chairman of the WZO, Yaakov Hagoel.

Both are associated with the right-wing coalition of parties involved in the WZO. Yizhar Hess, a senior representative of the Mercaz slate for the Conservative/Masorti Movement, has been elected deputy and acting chairman.

These positions, alongside the leadership of the Jewish National Fund-KKL, collectively command budgets of more than a billion dollars a year to be used for Jewish causes, including education and promoting Jewish immigration.

The incoming KKL leadership, not yet announced, is expected to split the five-year term between representatives from the right-wing and left-wing blocs.

The leadership appointments don’t usually get so much attention, but a series of controversial events in recent weeks has brought them to the forefront.

Two weeks ago, at the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, a previous leadership agreement was torn up at the last minute when it was revealed that Likud MK and Netanyahu loyalist Miki Zohar had snuck in a cushy job for the prime minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu.

In the end, the younger Netanyahu will not get any position in the WZO.

Last week, as a revised agreement was being prepared, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid announced that his party would no longer take part in any of the negotiations, decrying a system steeped in “a culture of corruption and political appointments” even as he had become a major power broker within the WZO.