Foreign Minister Yair Lapid wrote the Jewish Agency selection committee on Wednesday asking to postpone its scheduled vote for chairman in order to give time for an agreed-upon nominee for the position to be found.
Lapid wrote the letter after his candidate, MK Elazar Stern, quit the race following the scandal of him shredding documents of anonymous complaints in the IDF.
“It would be much appreciated if you give us the extra time so we can suggest the best candidate for the position, as we hold the agency in such high regard,” said Lapid.
But the selection committee met on Wednesday and decided to give Lapid until Sunday to come up with another candidate. The committee still intends to choose a replacement for President Isaac Herzog as chairman in time for the Jewish Agency Board of Governors meeting on October 26, and not in its next meeting in February as Lapid would prefer.
The committee interviewed its two final candidates – World Likud chairman Danny Danon and ANU Museum director Irina Nevzlin – on Wednesday. The 10-member panel is willing to interview another candidate if one comes forward over the weekend.
The Zman Yisrael website reported that Lapid was interested in Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni running for the position.
Livni responded to The Jerusalem Post: “I don’t know what the source of the report is. For years, I have not responded to theoretical reports about me, and I will not do so now either.”
Yamina MK Yom-Tov Kalfon, who is considered the most right-wing MK in the coalition, said he had no problem with Livni receiving the post.
“I would much rather have her helping bring immigrants from around the world than heading a negotiating team with the Palestinians,” he said.
Stern’s wife reacted for the first time to her husband’s misfortune on Wednesday, in an interview with Channel 12.
“His office did not even have a shredder,” she lamented. “It was just a metaphor.”