AVI GABBAY has already overturned convention once—when on July 10th he won the primaries to become the leader of Israel’s Labour party just six months after joining it. Now he is causing more ructions in the main opposition, with a series of statements that are heretical to those on the far left of Israeli politics. Although other Labour leaders have, at times, espoused similar views, Mr Gabbay has done so earlier and more emphatically. He says that, should he win the next election he would not invite the country’s Arab parties to join his coalition. And he has said that he does not think that Jewish settlements built on land in the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967, should necessarily be dismantled as part of a peace agreement. Further disconcerting some Labour supporters is his view that “a Jew cannot really not believe in God.”
Mr Gabbay’s intentions are clear. He is determined to break the image of...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2i8j522
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