Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has tapped former Prisoner of Zion Natan Sharansky to head the Jewish Agency for Israel. If selected for the senior post, Sharansky will replace current chairman, Ze’ev Bielski.

Sharansky arrived in Israel from the Former Soviet Union in 1986, a symbol of Jewish resistance against the anti-Semitic policies of the USSR and KGB. He formed the Yisrael B’Aliyah Party, which earned seven Knesset seats. He served as a cabinet minister and in other deputy ministerial positions before leaving the Knesset. He resigned in 2005 in protest over the planned expulsion of Jews from northern Shomron and Gaza.

He now maintains a senior position at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based right-wing think tank.

In 1986, Sharansky was awarded America’s prestigious Congressional Gold Medal followed by the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008. He is the only Israeli to ever have become a recipient of both, viewed in the international community as a major figure in the battle for democratic rights and principles.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)