Nachman Shai to Run for Chairman at the Jewish Agency

In recent news, the Minister for Diaspora Affairs, Nachman Shai, is to be considered to run for the position of Jewish Agency Chairman for the State of Israel. Late on Saturday night, it was announced that Shai is one of the handfuls of candidates who is being evaluated to become the new head of the Jewish Agency. A couple of days ago, Elazar Stern, the Minister for Intelligence Services, dropped out of the competition. 

The reason behind the withdrawal of candidacy was due to the political scandal that had surfaced, in which the minister admitted that he had been responsible for shredding complaints. These had been submitted to him while he was the leader of the Manpower Directorate of the IDF. A day after Stern withdrew his nomination, he was supposed to have a meeting with the ten members of the Jewish Agency Chairmanship selection committee.

Shai, aged 74, is the former Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, along with being an IDF spokesman. He started his career in the state of New York, working as a press secretary for the country’s delegation to the United Nations. His is the newest name to have been raised amongst several other names for the post of Chairman. Other candidates being considered include Uzi Dayan, the former General of the IDF, Michael Oren, the former ambassador from the country to the US, as well as some others. Tzipi Livni, the former Justice Minister, though has not yet officially declared that she is going to be competing for the position, is rumored to be backed by Yair Lapid. 

Founded back in the year 1929, the Jewish Agency in the State of Israel is the primary organization needed to facilitate ‘Aliyah’. Its function is to facilitate the immigration of Jews from across the globe into the country. David Ben Gurion had been the chair of the agency from the years 1935 to 1948. He had been instrumental in ensuring that Jews successfully immigrated to pre-state Israel at the time of his leadership. This was one of the reasons why he was consequently elected as the first leader of the Jewish State. 

The selection committee for the Jewish Agency is all set to convene on Monday to discuss and decide on the candidates who will be finalized for the position. In other news, the Prime Minister of the country, Naftali Bennett, took to criticizing the leader of the opposition, Benjamin Netanyahu. The reason behind his comments was because the former Prime Minister did not acknowledge the presence of the current leader at a farewell event, recently held in honor of the outgoing Chief of Shin Bet. 

While the event was ongoing, Netanyahu went up to give a speech right after the current Prime Minister. The speech was addressed to the Chief, Nadav Argaman, which the former leader began by greeting all the dignitaries present, except for Bennett. As a result, members of the audience shouted out, mentioning that the Prime Minister was also present amongst the dignitaries.