Here is the U.S. Republican/Trumpite (Traditional/National Conservative/One Jewish State) representative to the World Zionist Congress:
"One Jewish State: Founded by David Friedman, the former ambassador to Israel appointed by Donald Trump, this party describes itself as "a new movement promoting Israeli sovereignty in its biblical homeland – in a just manner that brings peace and prosperity."
"According to its platform, it "seeks to strengthen Israel's Jewish identity as a 'kingdom of priests and holy nation' by prioritizing biblical values throughout Israeli society and opposing policies that contradict Israel's Jewish identity" and encourages "Jewish settlement throughout greater Israel and sovereignty over the entirety of Eretz Yisrael."
With Huckabee hosting World Zionist Congress receptions at the US Trump Embassy in Jerusalem in 2025, there will be one hell of a Republican celebration in Jerusalem next October, and in the U.S.! Particularly at The American Conservative's editorial offices. With some good opportunities for the many Trumpites on this List who will be part of that to stake out a Settlement for themselves in joining that celebration in Jerusalem! If they haven't already, perhaps they can find a settlement near their Leader, Yoram Hazony, in Jerusalem or East Jerusalem?
President-elect Donald Trump selects former Gov. of Arkansas Mike Huckabee as his Ambassador to Israel.
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There is some difference from how Daniel Larison covered Huckabee in 2015, before Trump and before Larison was allegedly fired, and just, perhaps, before Charles Koch began funding TAC (according to Vanity Fair) with his longtime support of Israeli Hasbara and anti-BDS lawfare. But then, it was Huckabee sounding the warning of "abetting a future genocide," against Israelis, by Obama.
"Invoking the Holocaust in this cheap, point-scoring way in order to drum up political support is appalling in itself, but that is not all that Huckabee is doing here. Huckabee is accusing the administration and supporters of the nuclear deal of abetting a future genocide. That should have no place in this or any other policy debate, and Huckabee disgraces and discredits himself by making such an accusation."
BERKELEY, California – Most of the new American parties planning to run in the upcoming World Zionist Congress elections are Orthodox and support Jewish settlement in the West Bank, an examination of their platforms shows.
This past Friday was the deadline for all the new slates to submit the minimum 800 signatures required to be eligible to run in the elections, which will be held online between March 10 and May 4, 2025.
The next World Zionist Congress – often referred to as "the Parliament of the Jewish people" – is scheduled to take place in Jerusalem next October.
Of the nine new parties that managed to fulfill this requirement, more than half are affiliated with religious, right-wing ideologies. The nine new parties – an unusually high number – will compete for votes with another 14 that have already participated in previous elections.
Two of the new parties were founded by Israeli expats living in the United States. One is an affiliate of Yair Lapid's centrist Israeli Yesh Atid party, and one represents young Jewish-American leaders who support a two-state solution.
World Zionist Congress leaders and delegates protesting the judicial overhaul in a march to the Israeli Supreme Court, May 2023.Credit: Gili Getz
The phenomenal success of a rigidly Orthodox partly in the last WZC election, held in 2020, may explain why so many other religious right-wing movements have thrown their hats into the ring in this round.
A brand-new slate at the time, Eretz Hakodesh (the Holy Land) – which champions "traditional religious values and Jewish rights in the entire Land of Israel" (code for Israeli annexation of the West Bank) – emerged as the third-largest party in the 2020 election, garnering more than 15 percent of the total U.S. vote. It made attacks against Reform Judaism the focus of its campaign.
As a result of Eretz Hakodesh's strong showing, the center-left parties lost their long-standing majority in the WZC, along with control of key Zionist institutions, to the religious right.
In the 2020 WZC election, only four religious parties ran: Mizrahi (an Ashkenazi list); Shas Olami (a Sephardi list); Dorshei Torah V'Tziyon (a liberal-Orthodox list); and Eretz Hakodesh, which leans to ultra-Orthodox. In the upcoming election, there will be nine.
Elections for the WZC, which allocates $1 billion a year to Jewish causes, are held every five years. Its delegates determine policy for the World Zionist Organization and can influence appointments to its affiliate organizations – the so-called national institutions: the Jewish Agency for Israel; Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal; and the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael). The Jewish National Fund is considered the most important of these organizations as it owns a significant percentage of the land in Israel. It has also acted behind the scenes in recent years to promote the expansion of West Bank settlements.
Of the 525 delegates to the WZC, about a third are from Israel, a third from the United States and the others from the rest of the world. The composition of the Israeli delegation reflects the breakdown of the parties in the Knesset at the time of the WZC election.
The nine new slates were required to submit their candidate lists by Friday. The 14 slates that have already run in previous elections have until December 20 to submit both their updated platforms and candidate lists.
Below are the five new slates affiliated with the religious-right camp:
■ One Jewish State: Founded by David Friedman, the former ambassador to Israel appointed by Donald Trump, this party describes itself as "a new movement promoting Israeli sovereignty in its biblical homeland – in a just manner that brings peace and prosperity."
According to its platform, it "seeks to strengthen Israel's Jewish identity as a 'kingdom of priests and holy nation' by prioritizing biblical values throughout Israeli society and opposing policies that contradict Israel's Jewish identity" and encourages "Jewish settlement throughout greater Israel and sovereignty over the entirety of Eretz Yisrael."
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman pays a visit to the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem on January 20, 2021.Credit: Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy, Jerusalem
■ Aish Ha'am: This slate is connected to Aish HaTorah, an Orthodox outreach movement with a global presence that rivals Chabad. It has been associated with various right-wing pro-Israel projects. Heading the list are Rabbi Steven Burg, the director general of Aish HaTorah (and formerly managing director of the Orthodox Union) and Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard Divinity School student who made a name for himself this past year taking his university administration to task for its weak response to the anti-Israel protests on campus. He has since become a vocal supporter of Donald Trump.
■ Achduth Yisrael: This new pro-settlement slate claims to represent young, religious Zionists and is headed by Raphael and Michla Berlin, a couple from Spring Valley, N.Y. Its platform notes: "Since before the founding of the State of Israel, it has been a value to create a refuge for the Jewish People. Our enemies will stop at nothing to take that away from us, and so settling all parts of the country is a necessary step in securing it for current and future Jewish communities. We want to support the settling of the country to maintain truly defensible borders and affordable housing extending to all corners of Israel."
■ Am Yisrael Chai: Also maintaining to represent young religious Jewish-Americans, this new slate is dedicated to combating antisemitism and anti-Zionism on campuses as well as to educating and instilling "a love of Torah and Judaism." According to its platform, "We must remain steadfast in advocating Israel as our historical homeland, the focal point of our religious practice, and a unifier for the Jewish People."
■ Beyachad: This new slate was created by a group of Russian-speaking American ba'alei tshuva (previously secular Jews who have adopted an Orthodox lifestyle). Its platform states that it is "committed to strengthening traditional Jewish ideals as rooted in the millennia of Jewish tradition reaching back to Mt. Sinai" and that "we believe in the right of Jews to live in all parts of historical Israel."
Commenting on the proliferation of new lists, Herbert Block, the executive director of the American Zionist Movement, told Haaretz: "There is more of a buzz this year around the election because of the events of October 7, which have made more Jewish Americans engaged."
One of the new slates representing Israeli expats is AID (America-Israel Democracy) Coalition, which represents many of the groups that have been fighting the Israeli government's judicial overhaul and demanding an immediate hostage deal. Its partners in Israel include several organizations spearheading the anti-government protests of the past two years.
A protest by the Israeli expat group UnXeptable against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Toronto two months ago.Credit: Unxeptable
"The Israeli community of expats here in the U.S. has really come out of its bubble over the past two years and is much more engaged and involved in what's happening in Israel," said Jonathan Barsade, an attorney and semi-retired serial entrepreneur based in Philadelphia who founded and heads the list.
By participating in the WZC elections, he said, AID Coalition hopes to influence policy at the major Zionist institutions and "make sure that our resources go to rebuilding the north and the Gaza border communities, and to public education rather than sectorial education."
The other new expat list is IAC (Israeli-American Council), created by the right-leaning organization of the same name. IAC received considerable funding from Miriam Adelson, the billionaire Republican donor who backed Trump and supports annexing the West Bank. The list is headed by IAC CEO Elan Carr, who served as special envoy for combating antisemitism during Trump's last stint in office.
Elan Carr after a World Jewish Congress meeting looking at combating anti-Semitism, Munich, Germany, October 29, 2019.Credit: ANDREAS GEBERT/REUTERS
Another new list running in the upcoming election and comprised of young Jewish leaders is ANU: A New Union. It is the only one of the new lists to express in its platform support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"There is nothing radical in this," said Roei Eisenberg, an Israeli-American consultant active in the Jewish federation world, who founded and heads the list. "The rest of the Jewish world may have moved to the right, but we stayed where we always were." He called ANU "a millennial and Gen Z party."
