The big top went up in Jerusalem this week. You could smell the sawdust of committee rooms, see the bunting of acronyms, hear the barkers call delegates to their rows. Then the spotlight swung to the center ring and a placard appeared: “Head of Diaspora and Public Diplomacy.” Drumroll. Cymbals. A familiar surname. And just like that, we had an act.
The news, unvarnished: Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son, has been advanced for the World Zionist Organization’s executive and is slated to run a Diaspora and public diplomacy portfolio.
The post is described by insiders as carrying compensation and conditions on par with a cabinet minister, including an office, secretaries, a director general reporting beneath him, a car, and a travel budget. In earlier years, executive flights were business class across the board.
After reforms, business remains mainly for transatlantic routes. The veteran joke is that since the rules changed, everyone suddenly discovered urgent Zionist work in South America. Whether the punchline is fair or not, the incentives are obvious.
Where I stand and why: I know the WZO from the inside, since I worked there. I know it from the outside, since I later covered it. Two decades of watching these institutions at eye level have taught me what they look like when they are at their best and how they drift when the titles start multiplying faster than the missions.
This ecosystem was built to serve the Zionist movement, not any family. At its best, it practices mamlachtiyut (statesmanship in service of the public good): restraint, respect for the office, and the discipline to hold your tongue when the institution is larger than the ego. The tradition here is wall-to-wall. Parties that cannot agree on lunch still sit together because unity is part of the point.
That is why this appointment misses the moment. I am not against Netanyahu Jr. I have never met the guy. I would be against anyone, from any faction, who is high profile in spreading hate and spreading division within our nation, and then asks to become the face of Diaspora engagement. Public diplomacy is the work of lowering the temperature, building coalitions, and widening the tent without humiliating the people you want to persuade.
There is a practical test too. By multiple accounts, Yair Netanyahu lives in Miami. There is nothing inherently wrong with living in the Diaspora while serving the Zionist project. Many excellent professionals have done it. But a role that claims to bridge Israel and world Jewry is a seven-day-a-week craft.
It means you show up in synagogues, federations, campuses, parliaments, and Israeli towns, and people walk out willing to keep talking. Presence, accountability, and temperament are not extras. They are the job.
'If you are not careful, you build ceremony instead of service'
Scale tells its own story. Not long ago, the WZO’s departments could be counted on two hands. A decade back, there were roughly seven. Five years later, the number had doubled to about fourteen.
Now, according to reports and hallway spreadsheets, we are pushing two dozen. When the pie is fixed, bureaucracies create more plates. Titles multiply. Door decals blossom. Budgets find new homes. Mission does not necessarily grow. If you are not careful, you build ceremony instead of service.
It is worth remembering what these bodies actually do. The World Zionist Congress and the World Zionist Organization are not nostalgia clubs. Herzl’s movement and its partner institutions helped establish the State of Israel and, to this day, shape aliyot (waves of Jewish immigration), Jewish education, Hebrew outreach, land policy, and the fight against antisemitism. They distribute serious budgets and set priorities that reach diaspora communities as well as Israeli society. They are supposed to be a compass, not a carousel.
I am strongly in favor of widening participation in the Congress and the national institutions. Bring in more young activists, more voices from the periphery, more Jews who do not fit the usual labels but want in anyway. Widening participation is not the same as multiplying chairs. It is not awarding a minister-level package to a divisive celebrity and calling it strategy.
So here is the ask, direct and unambiguous. Delegates of the World Zionist Congress should vote against this appointment. Not because you dislike a family or prefer another.
Because you respect the institution. Because public diplomacy should be led by someone who can dial down conflict, listen more than post, and earn trust across Jewish differences.
Because the movement deserves criteria, not patronage: publish transparent standards for executive roles, require clear residency or time-on-task expectations, cap perks, publish work plans and measurable outcomes, and return to a genuine wall-to-wall coalition.
The opening this week looked like a circus. The ending should not. Fold the canvas, put away the props, and leave standing what matters: a working floor, a common table, and the quiet, unglamorous labor of a people choosing to be one people.