The possibility of the Labor Party dropping Akiva Lewinsky as its candidate for the chairmanship of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency Executive appears to be gaining momentum.
Although Lewinsky’s election had been considered virtually assured, he ran into opposition last month from a powerful group of 12 diaspora Jewish fund-raisers.
According to power-sharing rules between the Jewish Agency and the WZO, the outcome of the World Zionist Congress elections is subject to the “advice and consent” of the Jewish Agency Board of Governors. The board could veto Lewinsky if he were elected at the congress here in December. Diaspora leaders and Zionists each comprise half of the 74-member board.
PARTY URGED TO RETHINK SUPPORT
Although the Labor Party Executive reiterated its commitment to Lewinsky last week, re-endorsing the earlier unanimous nomination by the party’s central committee, a group of Labor Zionist delegates to the congress is now urging the party to re-think its support.
This is the first public articulation within the party that Lewinsky, who served as Jewish Agency-WZO treasurer for the past nine years, will have to be dropped.
Informed political sources say Labor Party leader Shimon Peres, Israel’s foreign minister, privately expects Lewinsky to bow out. Should he do so, Labor would be expected to nominate either Simcha Dinitz, a former ambassador to the United States, or Mordechai Gur, a former Israel Defense Force chief of staff and former cabinet minister.
Dissident Labor delegates said they felt a “golden opportunity” may be wasted if the party continues to support Lewinsky’s candidacy.
This was a reference to an arrangement the Labor Party made with several diaspora Zionist factions. In return for support for Labor’s candidate, the office of WZO treasurer would go to Avraham Avihai, a Canadian-born Israeli who is the choice of the Confederation of United Zionists, a coalition of Zionist organizations of which Hadassah is the largest component.
Other top portfolios were to go to the Association of Reform Zionists of America and to Mercaz, the Conservative Zionist organization. Labor’s rival, Likud-Herut, would thereby be excluded from the most important WZO posts.
Whoever goes to the congress as the Labor candidate for chairman may face a Likud challenge. Although that party has not yet nominated anyone, Likud-Liberal Gideon Patt, the minister of science and technology, is expected to enter the race. He flew to the United States this week, apparently to lobby for support among American delegates.
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