Israeli Labor chief’s new diplomatic plan
Zionist Camp head Avi Gabbay relaunches right-left debate by planning to present at the party convention a diplomatic program of separation from the Palestinians.
In a breakfast meeting at the Jerusalem King David Hotel between German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Zionist Camp leader Avi Gabbay and head of the opposition Isaac Herzog on Jan. 31, Gabriel expressed great interest in the new diplomatic plan being formulated in the Labor Party, the main partner within the Zionist Camp.
While the Israeli public is currently occupied with the police investigation into the submarine affair involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the German minister was more interested in the Facebook post Gabbay published Jan. 26, according to which the Labor Party convention will soon vote on a resolution regarding separation from the Palestinians for the sake of having a state with a clear Jewish majority.
At the meeting Gabbay added details to the resolution being drafted, which is supposed to be authorized by the party’s convention in the coming weeks, and Herzog urged Gabriel to put pressure on the Palestinians in order to move them out of the diplomatic deep freeze.
What’s interesting in this story is how what goes without saying — namely the support of the Labor Party for separation from the Palestinians, had become a headline. Similar decisions were accepted in the past, including in February 2016, under former party Chairman Herzog, when the party’s convention accepted a comprehensive resolution on separation from the Palestinians as part of realizing the vision of two states.
