“[Zionist Camp leader Isaac] Herzog should set a date for the primary for party leadership, he has no reason to fear it. Indecision is not a good situation,” Knesset member Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin told Al-Monitor in an interview, in response to Tel-Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai’s Sept. 7 call to move up the primary to elect the party’s head. Huldai, who has deliberated for a while whether to vie for the leadership of the Labor Party (the major partner within the Zionist Camp), switched gears and infused some interest into the sleepy political scene. For Herzog, this is a challenge to his leadership. It means internal unrest is growing within the Labor Party. 

In a Sept. 8 interview on Channel 2, Huldai, a member of the Labor Party and the invincible mayor of Tel Aviv, continued with the same confrontational line against Herzog. “I’m a concerned citizen,” said Huldai. He noted that he’s considering running, warned against joining the government and argued that Labor is on the decline in internal polls. As opposed to Herzog, Huldai has a national security background as an acclaimed fighter pilot with the rank of brigadier general.

In the background, former Labor Party chairman and Defense Minister Amir Peretz (currently of Hatnua) is also looking into returning to his mother party, Labor, and vying for its leadership. 

Nahmias-Verbin is much involved in these developments. Although the 45-year-old attorney was elected to the Knesset only half a year ago, she has seniority and experience in party politics, what’s commonly called the DNA of the Labor Party. As a student she worked in the office of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin until his assassination and she saw firsthand the vicious battles between him and former President Shimon Peres over the party’s leadership. Therefore, she thinks the fight that’s heating up over the leadership is actually a good sign that shows the party is coming back as a relevant player.