New Labor Party chair Avi Gabbay made a few surprising statements this week that made it abundantly clear he was abandoning the party’s traditional ideological stand as leader of the center-left, hoping to lure voters on the political right and gain sufficient support to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Gabbay — a newcomer to the Labor Party who was elected in the July 10 primaries to lead it — surprised most members of his party except for his ally, Knesset member Shelly Yachimovich. She claimed there was nothing new in his position. Many voters of the Zionist Camp — a two-faction union of which Labor is the senior member — who are also seeking a Netanyahu alternative were also likely taken aback by Gabbay’s statements.