Netanyahu holds up nomination of Herzog as new Jewish Agency head

Prime minister instructs appointments committee members to meet with Likud candidate Yuval Steinitz before making final recommendation

By ToI Staff 21 June 2018, 11:19 am

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Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (right) sits next to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an Aliyah Day event in the Knesset on October 24, 2017 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday night sought to block the nomination of opposition leader Isaac Herzog as the new head of the Jewish Agency despite overwhelming support from the agency’s appointments committee.

Nine of the 10 members of the committee voted in favor of Herzog replacing outgoing chairman Natan Sharansky.

But when committee members met with Netanyahu to present him with their recommendation, the premier admonished them for failing to meet with his preferred candidate, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz of Likud, and asked them to meet with the minister before making their final recommendation.

Sources in the agency told the Ynet news site Netanyahu’s wishes could be a deciding factor in the eventual nominee, who will need to be approved by the agency’s board of governors when it meets next week.

Sharansky is to step down as head of the Jewish Agency next month, after nine years in the position.

Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz attends the weekly government conference at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, October 29, 2017. (Ohad Zwigenberg/Flash90)

In addition to Herzog and Steinitz, candidates who have been floated as possible replacements for Sharansky include 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 is president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and Ma’ale Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel.

In March, Netanayhu reportedly recommended Yohanna Arbib-Perugia, head of the Jerusalem Foundation and a member of the executive of the Jewish Agency, for the position. However, a day later Haaretz reported that Netanyahu withdrew the nomination after she apparently rejected the offer.