World Zionist Congress coalition agreement negotiations continued without Yesh Atid on Thursday, following the party’s withdrawal the night before from a deal on the portfolios and positions within the National Institutions.
Several sources familiar with the matter said that Yesh Atid had only harmed themselves by not participating, in addition to damaging the reputation of the National Institutions.
The party had been set to have representatives in rotation for both the World Zionist Organization chair and the chair of the Jewish National Fund, in addition to other seats on the executive, but Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid’s announcement on Wednesday night left the positions open to renegotiation.
Yesh Atid would have shared the WZO chair with World Likud and incumbent Yaakov Hagoel, and the JNF with another Likud representative. The renewed negotiations mark the onset of the fourth coalition agreement since the WZC convened in Jerusalem last Tuesday.
Changes in the World Zionist Congress
The initial agreement was influenced by internal infighting in the Likud over elections and its leadership, with other slates coming to separate deals with different Likud factions.
Hagoel’s faction was excluded from the first agreement in favor of Culture Minister Miki Zohar’s faction, but on the last night of the WZC convention, after Zohar proposed to appoint the prime minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu, to the WZO executive, Yesh Atid and other slates ended the agreement.
Several slates called the inclusion of Netanyahu a “red line,” and instead of voting to officiate the positions, delegates at the convention voted to technically extend the event by another two weeks.
Yesh Atid had also been set to share the WZO chair, but with World Mizrachi CEO Rabbi Doron Perez.
A second agreement was negotiated, favoring Hagoel’s faction and allowing him the opportunity to return as WZO chair in rotation with Perez.
A provision was included in which the WZO leadership would elect two members to the executive on behalf of “Likud in the National Institutions” – a provision that would have made it unlikely for the prime minister’s son to be appointed.
A remote vote was announced from Sunday until Tuesday for delegates to officiate the agreement. Yet several right-leaning slates rejected the agreement and called to return to the first.
Several sources alleged that the Prime Minister’s Office had pressured them to reject the second deal.
A right-bloc petition was submitted to the WZO supreme court to delay the vote, but it was ruled that the vote would continue without the results being announced until the respondents had an opportunity to answer the petition.
While the vote was being held, factions across the political and religious spectrum agreed to negotiate for a third agreement.
The vote was extended until Wednesday morning so that the agreement was finalized on Tuesday night. Almost 500 delegates participated in the obsolete vote.
The third agreement on the allocation of National Institution positions and portfolios was set to be implemented with the vote of the second agreement legitimizing them.
Several factions expressed confidence that the “wall-to-wall” agreement would pass, but Lapid announced on Wednesday night that his party was withdrawing from the deal.
He had accused the system of being corrupt, nepotistic, and clientelist, providing jobs to the families and friends of political figures.
“This evening I want to announce that Yesh Atid has decided it will not be part of any of the agreements in the Zionist institutions. We will not take jobs, we will not take budgets, we will not take managerial positions, and we will not be part of the deal being stitched together there,” said Lapid.
“We entered politics to fight corruption, not to be part of a system to arrange jobs for the Netanyahu family and the Deri family. We wanted to clean the national institutions of the culture of corruption and political appointments – but it’s not possible. There’s no way to do it, and no one to do it with.”
Lapid called on other factions to join him in withdrawing from engaging with the national institutions and called for their nationalization by Israel. Yesh Atid is set to introduce a bill to nationalize the JNF.