Overview
- Likud announced plans to name Yair Netanyahu head of the World Zionist Organization’s Public Diplomacy Department, a paid post with minister-level benefits.
- Yesh Atid said it would block the move, and a freshly negotiated agreement between center-left and center-right blocs unraveled within hours.
- Delegates voted to prolong the World Zionist Congress by two weeks to allow further negotiations after the deal fell apart.
- The draft arrangement would have installed Rabbi Doron Perez as WZO chair and Meir Cohen as KKL-JNF chair, with a midterm rotation between the blocs.
- Internal Likud tensions between allies of WZO chair Yaakov Hagoel and Culture Minister Miki Zohar shaped the standoff as the right sought expanded sway over the WZO, the Jewish Agency and KKL-JNF.