From The Jerusalem Post:
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will soon ask former minister and dissident Natan Sharansky to serve as chairman of the Jewish Agency, sources close to the two men confirmed on Sunday.
Sharansky, who currently heads the Shalem Center’s Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies, wanted to run for the position in 2005, but his candidacy was prevented by then-prime minister Ariel Sharon, who backed then-Ra’anana mayor and current Kadima MK Ze’ev Bielski. But unlike that race, Sharansky would have the prime minister’s support this time, making him a certain winner.
"There has not yet been a formal and serious offer, but when there is one, he would take it," said a source close to Netanyahu and Sharansky who spoke about the matter with Sharansky on Sunday.
A source familiar with the effort to draft the former MK said that Netanyahu had been pressuring Sharansky to take the job and told him it could be a springboard to the presidency.
Netanyahu has reportedly even pressured Sharansky’s current boss, international businessman Sheldon Adelson, to allow Sharansky to leave the institute that bears Adelson’s name. But Adelson has insisted that he stay.
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