Labor chief Avi Gabbay is claiming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discriminates against Jews of Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) origin. But the “Once a racist, always a racist’’ campaign slogan he’s been using recently is offensive to Gabbay’s own Mizrahi community that he hopes to represent. It is a major political error.

Labor under Gabbay’s leadership is not doing well in pre-election polls. Gabbay has already led the party to the lowest point in its history, with just nine seats on a good day. Yet on March 20, he pulled out the ethnic card, assuming it would help him win over Likud voters offended by Netanyahu. He was acting like a bull in a china shop, causing even more damage to his party. Historically, Labor has been seen as having discriminated against the Mizrahi community during the days when its Mapai faction was in power. In contrast, the Likud offered Mizrahim social mobility.

Late Likud Prime Minister Menachem Begin was the first national figure to bring Mizrahi leaders from the periphery into the circle of decision-makers with influence over the national discourse. Chief among these leaders was former Foreign Minister David Levy. Throughout the '60s, '70s and '80s, the Likud became the political home to many members of the Mizrahi community living in the country’s social periphery, even though the party’s leadership had always been and continued to be led by Ashkenazi (of European origin) men: Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Ariel Sharon and Netanyahu. While it is a paradox, it is easy to understand why it happened. When running as the Labor candidate for prime minister in the 1999 election, Ehud Barak recognized the historic injustice perpetrated by his own party and apologized to the Mizrahi community.

Gabbay is the child of Moroccan immigrants he says voted Likud their entire lives. He of all people should have known that treating Likud supporters like a blind herd would have been seen as patronizing even if it came from him, a Moroccan Jew. It certainly would not win him votes. After he was elected chairman, quite a few people heard Gabbay say that his Moroccan mother alone was worth seven Likud seats. The results tell a different story. Mizrahi voters were in no rush to follow him long before Blue and White head Benny Gantz even entered the political arena. Gabbay never managed to foster a sense of identification among Likud supporters. Why? Because his efforts weren’t authentic. They were just a means to an end.