Investigations Surrounding Netanyahu Over Improper Conduct Expanding
Newly elected Labor Party leader Avi Gabbay, who joined the party that led Israel for its first two decades just six months ago, has come out swinging, saying that he will be the one to replace incumbent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
“The campaign to replace Netanyahu begins today,” Gabbay told reporters at his Tel Aviv office. “Elections have been called as far as we are concerned. We don’t know when yet. But we know we will win the 30 seats we need to defeat Netanyahu.”
The 30 seats refers to the current number of seats that Netanyahu’s Likud party holds in the 120-seat Israeli Knesset. Netanyahu has made a coalition with other right wing parties including those headed by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Education Minister Naftali Bennet. The Zionist Union, which is Labor plus one other party, currently has 24 seats although polls show them dropping significantly if elections were held today.
Gabbay, who was Israel’s Environment Minister with a different party, Kulanu, resigned in protest over the hardline Lieberman being appointed Defense Minister. He then switched to the center-left Labor party, and was one of seven candidates in Labor’s race for party leader. After last week’s first round which put Labor’s leader Isaac Herzog in third place, Gabbay faced off against former Defense Minister Amir Peretz in a run-off.
“They were sick of losing and they wanted a positive atmosphere,” Gil Hoffman, political reporter for The Jerusalem Post told The Media Line, said of Labor’s voters. “It’s a new start for a party that has gone through trouble and a fresh face who can appeal to people who want change.”
Interestingly, both Peretz and Gabbay are “Mizrachim”, Jews whose parents immigrated to Israel from Arab countries. The traditional image of the Labor party is of more elitist “Ashkenazim”, Jews from Eastern Europe. For many years, Labor’s leader was former Prime Minister Shimon Peres with his thick Polish accent.
Gabbay’s election come as Netanyahu is facing three separate investigations into financial improprieties. In one case, dubbed Case 3000, Israeli police have detained a former major general for questioning, following the earlier detention of six people reportedly involved. The case revolves around possible corruption surrounding the procurement of submarines and patrol ships from the German conglomerate Thyssen-Krupp. The allegations include bribery and money laundering.
If Netanyahu is indicted, he would be forced to resign as former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did in 2008, after being convicted of corruption. He was freed from prison earlier this month after serving 16 months.
Netanyahu has insisted that all of the allegations against him will be dismissed and he will remain Prime Minister. Gabbay’s election will do little to change that, Israeli analysts say.
“I think the government is quite stable,” Avraham Diskin, a professor of political science at Hebrew University told The Media Line. “There are tensions between the parties but there is no interest in new elections.”
In the past, Netanyahu has expressed interest in having the Labor party join his government to make it a broader-based government. Former Labor party leader Isaac Herzog had expressed interest in joining such a government – which analysts said was one of the reasons that he was overthrown as party leader.
As Gabbay only joined Labor six months ago, he is not a member of the Knesset. Gil Hoffman said that will make it more difficult for Israelis to get to know him.
“It limits the stage he’ll have to reach out to the public, and limits his ability to use parliamentary methods to bring down Netanyahu,” Hoffman said.
But Gabbay says he’s just getting started. He’s vowed to double the current Labor membership from 52,000 to more than 100,000 voters before the next general election.