By breaking up with his stunned political partner of four years on live television, Labor Party leader Avi Gabbay has left the Israeli opposition in shambles barely three months before the next elections. The split with Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua Party — and the brutal way it was carried out — leaves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ideological rivals more consumed with bitter infighting than trying to develop a palatable alternative to the right wing.
The optics aren’t lost on Netanyahu, who struck a statesman-like pose at President Jair Bolsonaro’s inauguration in Brazil while his rivals self-destructed. "I don't intervene in how the left splits its votes,” he said dismissively.
