Running against billionaires like cosmetics heir Ron Lauder, Einat Wilf didn’t have much of a chance of winning the election to lead the World Jewish Congress, and ultimately she bowed out of the race. The former foreign policy adviser to Shimon Peres tells the blog Jewess that she had “no realistic expectation of winning,” but was rather running to promote certain ideas. You can read the full interview here.
One interesting tidbit is that Wilf apparently sees nothing wrong with the Israeli Consulate in New York’s collaboration with Maxim on the magazine’s salacious “Women of the Israeli Defense Forces” photo spread. The Israeli government’s partnership with the raunchy lad-mag drew fierce criticism, particularly from several female Knesset members. Wilf, however, tells Jewess: “Too much has been made of it. It’s a nice initiative, and the IDF could do worse than being associated with beautiful women.”
It was just a few weeks ago that The New York Observer was describing the battle for the World Jewish Congress presidency as a silver-spoon slugfest between Ron Lauder and Matthew Bronfman.
Well, with the election just a few weeks away, the presumed rivals announced today that they are running … together!?!
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