Power Shift at the World Zionist Congress: A Fragile Truce Between Liberal and Religious Factions. Historic Compromise Struck Amid Power Struggles in Global Zionist Institutions.
In a rare moment of unity within the fractious corridors of global Zionist politics, negotiations at the World Zionist Congress (WZC) have reportedly culminated in a hard-fought compromise that will reshape leadership across key Zionist institutions. According to an inside source at the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the deal, though not yet formally signed, marks a delicate balancing act between Israel’s liberal and religious blocs.
Under the emerging agreement, Rabbi Doron Perez, chairman of the Religious Zionist World Mizrachi Movement, is poised to become the next Chairman of the World Zionist Organization. Rabbi Perez’s personal story has resonated deeply across Israel and the diaspora: his son, Captain Daniel Perez, was murdered in Hamas’s October 7th massacre and his body held hostage in Gaza for nearly two years before being returned.
The Rabbi’s expected appointment, therefore, carries both symbolic and emotional weight, uniting the Zionist movement under the banner of faith, loss, and resilience. His leadership will represent not only a religious revival within the Zionist institutions but a powerful moral counterbalance to the growing secular and post-Zionist currents in global Jewish organizations.
However, in a show of political parity, Perez’s five-year term will be split in half, with a Yesh Atid representativetaking the helm midway through.
🇮🇱 — WZO: The 39th World Zionist Congress opened in Jerusalem on Thursday with the largest-ever U.S. delegation, including 155 delegates and 100 alternates representing 22 states.
— Belaaz News (@TheBelaaz) October 29, 2025
• The Congress, also called the “Parliament of the Jewish People,” brings together delegates from… pic.twitter.com/K8PM9xMWUu
A Rotation of Influence: The JNF and WZO Divided by Design
Simultaneously, the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet L'Yisrael in Hebrew - KKL-JNF), long considered one of Zionism’s most influential financial arms, managing millions of dunams of Israeli land, will also see a change in leadership. Yesh Atid MK Meir Cohen, a founding member of the party and veteran legislator, will step down from the Knesset to assume the JNF chairmanship.
Cohen, 69, is set to serve the first half of the term before yielding the position to a Likud representative. The rotational system mirrors the fragile ideological ceasefire that has defined the current WZC compromise: an uneasy peace between the liberal pluralists and the nationalist right.
A source within the WZO described the agreement as “a fair reflection of the relative weight of both camps,” noting that during the previous term, both the WZO and JNF were dominated by Likud appointees, Yaakov Hagoel and Ifat Ovadia-Luski respectively. That dominance, the source added, fueled growing tension among non-Orthodox and centrist Zionist factions who felt increasingly alienated from decision-making processes.
“The right-wing’s attempt to monopolize the Zionist institutions was stopped,” the source emphasized, crediting “a rare display of unity” among pluralist and centrist parties that joined forces to block a conservative takeover.
🇮🇱 “These Zios are us.” — President Isaac Herzog
— American Zionist Movement (@AZM4Israel) October 29, 2025
At the opening plenary of the 39th World Zionist Congress, President Isaac Herzog delivered a stirring defense of Zionism — reclaiming the term “Zios” from those who use it as a slur and turning it into a badge of honor.
“These… pic.twitter.com/CAQqjXjign
Lapid Praises Cohen’s “Zionist Service” and Prepares for Elections
In a statement announcing Cohen’s new role, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid lauded him as “a lifelong member of the Yesh Atid family, a patriot, organizer, and man of the people who will help guide our movement into the next election.”
Cohen, a former education minister and mayor of Dimona, expressed gratitude for the trust placed in him, pledging to use his new position to “strengthen Israel’s future and prepare for the government that will bring change to the people of Israel.”
While Cohen exits the Knesset after 12 years of public service, his departure underscores Yesh Atid’s broader strategy: embedding loyal party figures within the institutions that shape Zionist policy, education, and land development worldwide.
BREAKING
— Judah Ari Gross (@JudahAriGross) October 29, 2025
Rabbi Doron Perez, chair of World Mizrachi whose son's remains were held captive by Hamas until earlier this month, will be the next WZO chairman under a coalition deal between the center-left and center-right blocs, a WZO official tells mehttps://t.co/lWdMoHUmnk
A Balancing Act Between Two Visions of Zionism
The compromise, if finalized, will mark a symbolic handshake between two competing visions of Zionism, one rooted in tradition and Torah, and the other in modernity and pluralism.
Rabbi Doron Perez, representing the religious right, and Meir Cohen, embodying Israel’s liberal centrism, will now share stewardship over the ideological and financial levers of the Zionist movement.
For some, it is a moment of pragmatic cooperation. For others, it is a political ceasefire masking an ideological war still very much alive beneath the surface.
As the ink dries on the still-unofficial agreement, one truth remains: the World Zionist Congress, like the Jewish world itself, continues to balance between faith and freedom, heritage and progress, survival and renewal.
