WJC president, former confidant to PM: ‘Israel stands to lose badly’ if Netanyahu reelected

Ronald Lauder, who served as a confidant to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a number of years and is president of the World Jewish Congress, tells Haaretz that he is issuing a warning to Israelis not to reelect the premier.

“I’ve been silent for 20 years, 30 years,” says the billionaire philanthropist. “One of the things that made Israel so special compared to other countries is that they had a real democracy. What we’re seeing now feels more like a banana republic.”

“If Bibi is elected, Israel stands to lose badly,” he says.

When asked who he would vote for, Lauder says he wouldn’t cast a ballot because he is “so disgusted with the system,” but that if he had to choose, he would pick Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot.

“If Ben Gvir and Smotrich’s parties play any role in government in the future, Israel is doomed,” he says, referring to the leaders of two far-right parties, serving as national security minister and finance minister respectively.

Lauder tells Haaretz that he and Netanyahu previously had a very good relationship.

“We were very close. Often we were talking, laughing, having fun, speaking about people… Weekly, daily sometimes. We talked about everything going on,” he says.

Lauder says the relationship deteriorated when Netanyahu married his third wife, Sara. Haaretz says it seems the issue came from the premier’s wife’s requests for gifts. As an example, the newspaper says Lauder was asked by Sara Netanyahu to give a $25,000 gift for her son Yair’s bar mitzvah.

Lauder also details his time working as a negotiator between Israel and Syria in the 1990s, and says that at the time, Netanyahu agreed to give up the Golan Heights as part of a potential agreement.

Lauder implies that Netanyahu eventually torpedoed the agreement.

“He chose politics over peace. He put his political future before the deal. That’s where he lost me. I saw him afterward, but it was never the same. He betrayed me. That’s Bibi,” he says.

Lauder says Netanyahu said that he would only sign the agreement if then-defense minister Ariel Sharon did so first.

“What he did was so outrageous,” says Lauder. “I spent months and months getting this thing together, and he says ‘only if you convince Sharon.’ So I said, ‘Sharon will never agree to this. Even if it was the greatest thing in the world, he doesn’t want you to get credit.’ So why don’t you sign it and stand up for Israel? He wouldn’t do it.

Lauder tells Haaretz he last spoke to the prime minister two or three years ago.

“Israel today is in a very, very difficult position. More difficult than they realize. Throughout the last 20 years of being president of the World Jewish Congress, I have been visiting European and other countries where there are Jewish organizations. And in every one of them, I met the prime minister or the president of that country,” says Lauder. “The fact is that Israel has lost not only Europe and other places, but the diaspora. Yes, they still are loyal to Israel, but they don’t feel Israel’s protecting them.”

He says that he is particularly concerned about the deterioration in ties between Israel and the US.

Lauder says he has now sold or donated all his properties in Israel, having previously spent a number of weeks per year in the country, but admits to having mixed feelings about the sale of his Tel Aviv apartment.

“I have no intention of going back to Israel. Zero,” he says. “You have so many little fights everywhere,” adding that he has “no interest” in being there.

However, he tells Haaretz he was very moved by the videos of young people singing a song for peace at a festival in southern Israel last weekend.

“We are at a turning point. If people in Israel come to their senses, there will be a good future here,” he says.

Videos of young Israelis singing "Song for Peace," known as "Shir LeShalom" in Hebrew, at the InDNegev festival in Southern Israel have gone viral.

The song was first performed by Lehakat HaNahal, a military musical unit, in 1969 and became an unofficial anthem for Israel's… pic.twitter.com/Yq6GPZEUFi

— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) October 19, 2026