Officials hope 'Jewish hero' will heal rift between PM, Diaspora

After weeks of passionate debate, the Jewish Agency for Israel Tuesday passed controversial reforms that strip the Israeli prime minister of the power to recommend its chairman. That role will instead be passed to an internal Agency committee.

Although the governance reform had caused a rift between the Agency and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the 10-headed leadership nominating committee, which consists of five members of the World Zionist Organization, three from the American United Jewish Communities and two from the United Israel Appeal, is expected to nominate the candidate he proposed, Natan Sharansky.

A participant of the Jewish Agency Board of Governors told Haaretz that the committee met last night and will officially nominate Sharansky this morning for the chairmanship. Tomorrow the board is then expected to officially elect him to the position. The WZO, which for the first time in the Agency's history did not elect a chairman first, is expected to ask Sharansky to be their chairman as well, the source added.

Although the governance reform specified that the two bodies are henceforth independent of each other and do not necessarily have to have the same chairperson, Sharansky is likely to accept the position. The new recommendation to have two separate leaders will be worked out during Sharansky's term, the source predicted.

"Given the governance [reform's] passage, which of course also means the separation of the chair of [the Agency] and the chairman of WZO, we embrace Sharansky," UJC Chair Joe Kanfer told Haaretz minutes after the reform was accepted by a large majority of delegates at the Jewish Agency's Assembly in Jerusalem. "He's a hero of the Jewish people, he brings prestige and he has a wonderful relationship with the prime minister. I assume that he'll be in full concurrence with the governance reform and in that way this is a perfect situation and can be wrapped up immediately."

"There seems to be a consensus, also among the Americans, that Sharansky is an acceptable candidate. I believe this could be over very quickly," Richard Pearlstone, who chairs the Jewish Agency's board of governors, said. About the prospects of healing the rift the reform caused between the Jewish Agency and Netanyahu, Pearlstone said this wasn't the first time an Israeli prime minister disagreed with The Agency's board about nominees for the chairmanship.

"We believe this will be resolved once we have a new chairman," he said. "We're looking forward to good relations, the Israeli government is a very important partner."