A week has gone by since the 36th Zionist Congress ended abruptly and in pandemonium at the raucous final resolutions session, and I am still reeling from the effects.

Most strikingly, I can still hear the echoes of someone in the large convention hall calling Prisoner of Zion Yosef Mendelevich a "fascist" and the unanswered entreaties of the session chairman that he retracts his words. That canard hurled at Mendelevich—who spent 11 years in Soviet prisoner camps after being convicted in 1981 as an accessory to the famous, failed hijacking attempt by Soviet refusniks aimed at drawing international attention to the plight of Soviet Jewry—was the poignant near-conclusion of one of the most raucous Zionist Congresses I can remember in my near-20 year involvement in the World Zionist Organization (WZO).

WZO founder Theodore Herzl—the father of modern Zionism and the focus of the Congress on the 150th anniversary of his birth—could not help but roll over in his grave that sits just a few miles away from the Jerusalem Convention Center where the Congress was held.

Another jarring, but all too representative scene at that fateful resolutions session, was when two exasperated young delegates from different countries, one from Australia and the other from the U.S. , requested and received special dispensation to speak from the stage from no less an eminent personage than the president of the Congress. These two young men, both committed Zionists, were rewarded for their commitment by being named to their respective delegations and flown to Israel at the expense of the Zionist Movement, in order to be infused with Zionist fervor that would assumingly inspire their personal and communal future. They told the hundreds assembled that the Congress was no less than the most disappointing experience of their lives, instead of the uplifting experience it should have been.

The deterioration of the Congress into a sparring contest between its rival constituent groups ranging from Shas to Arzenu – the Zionist faction of the Reform Movement, from the National Union to Meretz and everything in the diverse and divisive "Zionist" spectrum in between, was a foregone conclusion to anyone who took the time to review the 110 resolutions placed before it. While many of these were “mom-and-apple-pie” resolutions calling for more Zionist education, more funding for Zionist youth groups etc., many focused on the most divisive issues facing the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora and the "peace process."

These included resolutions calling on the WZO to urge the Israeli government to equalize the status of all religious streams in Israel, instructing the WZO Settlement Department to operate only within the Green Line and appealing to the prime minister to extend the limited building freeze in the West Bank and Gaza beyond its initial 10-month limit. With this in mind, and with Israel reeling from the international opprobrium leveled against it by friend and foe following the Turkish flotilla incident, I drafted a letter to the WZO leadership begging it to set aside the debate on all of these resolutions and long winded presentations on the challenges facing the State of Israel and the Jewish people—something we are all quite well aware of—and instead use the opportunity of the quadrennial Zionist Congress to extend an emotionally-charged show of support for the Israeli state, people, and defense forces.

Specifically I proposed that the existing program be set aside in light of the public relations damage to Israel stemming from the flotilla incident and instead that the Congress convene four large outdoor events, in Sderot, at a Navy base, in Ariel and at the Western Wall whose sole purpose would be a show of solidarity in the best tradition of "All Israel is responsible one for the other." This letter was endorsed by the leaders of all the International Jewish Organizations who are members of the WZO, together with B'nai B'rith International, but unfortunately fell on deaf ears among the organizers and the Congress sailed along to its inevitable explosion.

Hints of the ensuing pandemonium on the final day could be seen in the committee sessions that preceded it. My personal experience in Committee Six that debated 10 draft resolutions on the Settlement Enterprise was typical. A solid coalition on the left prevented any resolutions that carried the words "Eretz Israel" from passing. So exasperated was the chairman of the committee that after two or three resolutions he accused the committee of being anti-Zionist, threw down his resolutions booklet, and stormed out of the room, leaving his deputy who represented JStreet, to continue and conclude the debate.

The resolutions plenary: was a landmark event. It included resolutions on the recognition of Reform and Conservative streams in Israel, and even a resolution critical of Shas. This is the first time I remember any resolution aimed at one of the Congress factions,(let alone one that had joined the Zionist movement only months earlier)being discussed.

With the allotted time for the session running out, the chairman announced that he would skip to the constitutional amendments after which voting on the policy resolutions would not resume. The resolutions that were not acted upon would be transferred to the Zionist General Council for debate. But after dispensing with the constitutional amendments the chairman failed to close the debate and opened voting on the divisive Committee Six resolutions, starting with one calling on the prime minister to extend the building freeze. Likud, Shas, Yisrael Beitenu, and other right wing delegates tried to argue with the chairman that their faction delegates had left the hall after his announcement that there would be no further voting on policy resolutions. But this was to no avail. When the chairman continued with the voting process, dozens of right wing delegates rushed the stage and started to sing Hatikvah – the traditional sign that the Congress is closed.

This was a sorry moment in Zionist history, perhaps indicative of the dwindled state of the movement and the organization.

Not all was bleak at the Congress. The International Jewish Organizations, among them B'nai B'rith International, increased their stake in the movement, taking part in the coalition negotiations that led to wall-to-wall agreement on the slate of office holders that was elected unanimously.

The slate included, for the first time, representatives of the International Jewish Organizations and, for the first time, our delegations were allowed to vote in those elections following an amendment to the WZO constitution. Still, this was overshadowed by the ugly divisiveness that plagues the WZO. As the new leadership team takes hold – led for the first time by a principled representative of the religious Zionists, Avraham "Duvdev" Duvdevani - we can only hope that together we can find the path for healing the wounds left by the Congress and direct the WZO towards making a positive contribution to Jewish reality in today's hostile world when so many inside and outside of the organization have regrettably drawn the conclusion that it has outlived its purpose and effectiveness.

The writer coordinated B'nai B'rith International's delegation to the 36th Zionist Congress