Yaakov Hagoel, who has been elected head of the World Zionist Organization in recent days, tells Arutz Sheva in an interview about the significance of the position and the goals he set himself during this tenure.
"The World Zionist Organization is the same body that Binyamin Zeev Herzl founded 120 years ago in Basel. Over the years, this body established several very significant subsidiaries: The Jewish National Fund, the Jewish Agency, Keren Hayesod, and we, the World Zionist Organization, still own these companies. In addition, the WZO has a lot of activity in Israel and the Diaspora, the Division for Settlement, Encouragement of Aliyah, the fight against anti-Semitism, all of which are very big banners," says Hagoel.
In his remarks, Hagoel talks about the last Zionist Congress that ended a few days ago and "is actually the parliament of the Jewish People. 700 delegates from all over the world gathered to give us the highlights for the next five years, they elected officials and I am one of them, and now we have a five-year term to do good for the people of Israel and to the Land of Israel."
Hagoel is careful to emphasize that all Zionist initiatives and organizations have a place in the general work for the people of Israel, "But we must remember, we're a state body and no longer an association. We are the platform that represents the entire Jewish People. We have reform, conservative, haredim, secular, almost all Israel with us inside the tent and this tent is expanding. We saw a huge vote in the U.S., twice as much as the previous time. I say this even though we, the Israelis, sometimes refer to Zionism with cynicism. Zionist values today in the coronavirus era and the challenges of the Jewish communities in the face of anti-Semitism, rising assimilation, high costs of Jewish education.. there's much room for the activities of the World Zionist Congress to lead in all these values."
Are there indeed values common to all the streams mentioned by Hagoel? In his opinion, definitely yes. "This time we were also joined by haredi audiences who were not once in the Zionist tent and today they define themselves as part of the story and that's an amazing thing. People want to join and be a part.
"We look at the common denominator. It's easiest to come and say what separates us. The real challenge is to look at the commonly shared and I think most of the values are commonly shared, they're for the people of Israel and for the Land of Israel, to connect all the people of Israel and the Land of Israel to a common language between those who sit in Zion and those who do not yet. There is mutual responsibility here and we have tremendous challenges ahead of us."
Hagoel refers to the personal goals he set for his tenure with his friends, "We must lead this aircraft carrier to a good path in unity, out of Jewish pride with values for the people of Israel and the Land of Israel."
In his remarks, Hagoel emphasizes that although his victory is the victory of the national camp after an election in which each side tried to garner the most votes, "once the Congress is over we're one Zionist organization. We're one people, we want to work for the values, to strive for unity, not at the cost of diversity, but with the understanding that the people of Israel and the Land of Israel are above it."