ON JULY 10th Israel’s Labour Party elected as leader one of its newest members: Avi Gabbay, who joined only six months ago. He represents a leap into the unknown for Labour, which was once Israel’s party of government but has not been in power for 16 years. It has changed leaders eight times since then.
Mr Gabbay is the former CEO of Bezek, Israel’s largest telecoms firm. He entered politics in 2014, helping to found the centrist Kulanu party, and served for a year as environment minister (though he failed to be elected to parliament). He resigned in May 2016, denouncing the coalition’s rightward shift, and joined Labour. Last week he came second in the first round of its leadership election, beating Isaac Herzog, the leader for the past four years, into third place. In the second round he overcame a party veteran and former leader, Amir Peretz, a trade unionist who ran on a resolutely left-wing platform and enjoyed the support of much of the party...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2u9pdiL
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