Fomer Advisor to Sa’ar to Run as Likud Leader for Judea-Samaria

Bruchin community founder and CEO of the Eshkolit Forum Zahi Dickstein will be running for the Likud leadership in Judea-Samaria, he announced Thursday, ahead of the party primaries. 

Dickstein, 36, is married with six children. He was a former adviser to former Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar and held executive positions in the Yesha Council, as well as the Tourism Committee for the Jerusalem Municipality and a security manager in Ariel. 

From 2005 to 2012 Dickstein served as a senior consultant to Minister Gideon Saar, a role which earned him rich political experience. Dickstein also holds a BA in Political Science and Communications and a certificate from the unit of Journalism and Communications from Bar Ilan University, and is an infantry company commander and Major in the reserves. 

The Judea-Samaria leader seat is #33 on the Likud list, but the position could move up several slots in the event other positions are cancelled, which analysts say is likely in the 2015 elections.

If so, Dickstein could become a Likud MK, in the unlikely – but still plausible – event that the party gains far more than the 22 seats projected for the 20th Knesset in recent polls. 

Dickstein explained his candidacy Thursday as the natural next step in working for Judea-Samaria’s needs.

“After many years in Likud and working in several settlements in Judea-Samaria, as well as in the Yesha Council, and as an advisor to Minister Gideon Sa’ar [. . .] I have decided to run for the Judea-Samaria chief position on the Likud list, to faithfully represent the values and needs of the Likud and hopefully to sit in the Israeli Knesset,” he said.

Dickstein will be running against Yehuda Glick, the veteran Temple Mount activist who narrowly survived a recent assassination attempt by an Islamist terrorist.