Calling All Jews! Cast Your Vote for Israel365 Action!

by Karen Hurvitz

The upcoming 39^th World Zionist Congress (WZC) election, which takes place online between March 10 and May 4, gives world Jewry the opportunity to influence Israeli policies by voting for delegates whose party slate represents their vision for Zionism, the movement that advocates for a Jewish homeland in Israel. The delegates will represent world Jewry at the Congress, which will take place in October.

The World Zionist Organization was founded at the initiative of Theodore Herzl at the First Zionist Congress, which took place in August 1897 in Basle, Switzerland. When it was founded, the goal of the Zionist movement was to establish a legally assured home in Eretz Yisrael for the Jewish people. To achieve this, the delegates resolved, among other things, to promote settlement, to organize and unite world Jewry, and to strengthen Jewish national sentiment and national consciousness through education.

The WZO is responsible for setting policies, electing leadership, and directing various departments that oversee educational, cultural, and developmental activities within Israel. In addition, it will determine how a budget of more than $1 billion a year will be divided among Jewish institutions over the next five years.

The WZC has 525 total seats, with representation from three different geographic areas: Israel has 200 seats, divided along the lines of political parties’ representation in the Knesset; the United States has 152 seats, divided according to the election results; the remaining 173 seats are chosen by other countries. Voting for the 39th WZC is open to all Jews aged 18 or older with permanent residency in the US. Voters must accept the World Zionist Organization’s principles of Zionism and pay a $5 fee to vote online. The upcoming elections will allow US Jews to choose their 152 representatives from 22 slates.

In recent years, the slates of some parties have become secular, progressive, and, incredibly, anti-Zionist. As Ameinu, which led the Hatikvah’s party slate in the 38^th WZC, stated, it may be time “that the WZO finally declare its purpose done…and close up shop.” Also at the 38^th WZC, Rabbi Alissa Wise, of Jewish Voice for Peace, questioned the value of anything having to do with Zionism. Jewish Voice for Peace “unequivocally opposes Zionism.”

This year, the Hatikvah/Progressive Israel Party’s platform calls for “an immediate negotiated end to the war in Gaza” and “fiercely opposes” occupation and annexation of the “West Bank”. Its delegate list includes Jeremy Ben Ami, the founder of J-Street, and Nomi Colton-Max, co-chair of the Board of Directors of the New Jewish Narrative, whose board members include Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, which strayed out of its educational lane and passed a resolution last July advocating for a two state solution, and Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund. Another party, ANU: A New Union Party has a platform that states that peace can only be achieved by means of the two state solution. The Vote Reform Party also is fighting for a two state solution.

Progressive parties seeking to impose their agendas on the WZO are not only thwarting the stated goals of the WZO, but they are also ignoring reality. For Hamas and other Islamist organizations, the conflict with Israel is not about prisoners or “occupation”: it is jihad to murder Jews and annihilate Israel. Since it was elected, Hamas has used massive foreign humanitarian aid to turn Gaza into a terror base. This should have been clear after October 7. After October 7, Hamas has clearly stated that it will commit many more October 7ths in order to accomplish the annihilation of Israel.

This situation will not change: Hamas’s 1988 charter, quoting Hassan Al- Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, states that “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it”. The conflict is a religious one, and reflects jihad, which is the duty of every Muslim. Moreover, “Palestine” is regarded as once having been Muslim land, binding Muslims to restore caliphate rule over it.

Amplifying this intractable problem is the fact that the education system and Arab media operate in support of the religious imperative to destroy Israel and kill Jews. Muslim children in Gaza are implored to “liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque” – with a “Kalashnikov, an M-14, an axe, and a knife”. UNWRA textbooks espousing Jew hatred have been pivotal in radicalizing generations of Gazans. Al Jazeera periodically runs articles featuring “historical” narratives which claim that even before the British Mandate expired on May 14, 1948,

Zionist paramilitaries were already embarking on a military operation to destroy Palestinian towns and villages to expand the borders of the Zionist state that was to be born… The Zionist movement captured 78 percent of historic Palestine. The remaining 22 percent was divided into what are now the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip, and 750,000 Arabs were forced out of their homes… Zionists went about an extraordinary linguistic restructuring that included renaming nearly every Palestinian village and land formation… The only way an exclusive and exclusionist Jewish state could be created was by the forced physical removal of this society, which began in earnest in 1947 by highly trained and well-funded armed groups of European Jews.

In parallel to this narrative of armed European Jews colonizing Palestine running in Arab media and education is the anti-Israel, anti-Jew ethnic studies curriculum in United States schools, especially toxic in California and Massachusetts but widespread across the US. The curriculum obfuscates the historical connection of Jews to Israel, as demonstrated by the Bible, archeology and history: beginning in about 1000 BCE, the land of Israel was a unified Jewish kingdom; in about 931 BCE it was divided into the Kingdom of Israel with its capital in Samaria, and the Kingdom of Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem. Jews have had a presence in the Holy Land for millenia.

In contrast to the progressive, anti-Zionist parties, and in keeping with the goals of WZO, the Israel365 Action party believes in the Jewish people’s right to the entire land of Israel and seeks a true and lasting peace for all of Israel’s inhabitants. It is a movement of passionate Jews who understand that Israel cannot continue to pursue the failed “two state solution.” The “land for peace” delusion must end. October 7th proved yet again that a Palestinian state in Israel’s biblical heartland would become an armed terrorist fortress with the goal of destroying Israel and the Jews who live there. To promote a two state solution is suicidal. Additionally, Israel365 Action believes that Jews need to cultivate alliances with faith-based Christian communities, who have always shown strong support for Israel based on shared biblical values. Lastly, Israel365 Action understands that the Jewish establishment’s October 6th mindset catastrophically failed us; their weakness and self-delusion led to October 7th, yet they cling to the same failed policies. Their timid leadership has created a generation of young Jews who are more likely to support a Palestinian state than stand proudly for their own heritage. Israel365 Action will revolutionize Zionist education, prioritizing educational initiatives that reframe Zionism so that it is rooted in the core of Jewish identity – the Bible and the history of the Jewish people in the land of Israel. This focused education will create new leaders who will speak truth without apology: The Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people, and Israeli sovereignty over our entire biblical homeland is the only path to true peace and security.