Final agreement reached on WZO and KKL leadership saga; no job for Yair Netanyahu

A final coalition agreement has been signed for the leadership of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish National Fund-KKL, concluding a dramatic negotiation process that included several surprise turns.

Under the agreement, Yaakov Hagoel of Likud will be the WZO Chairman for the first two and a half years, to be followed by a representative of the pluralistic/liberal bloc for the second half of the five-year term.

At KKL, a representative of the pluralistic/liberal bloc will serve as the chair for the first half of the term, followed by a representative of Likud for the second half.

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 massacre, will be named the president of the WZO, instead of taking the chairmanship as announced earlier this week.

Yizhar Hess will continue in his role as WZO vice chair.

This divides the senior-most leadership positions at the national institutions evenly between the right/Haredi and liberal/pluralistic blocs, a WZO source says.

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 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, a WZO source confirms.

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.