Labor candidate Gabbay: Herzog to remain opposition head if I win

Avi Gabbay, one of two candidates vying to become head of the Labor party, said on Thursday that if he defeats Amir Peretz in Monday’s runoff vote he will keep incumbent Isaac Herzog on as opposition leader.

In a statement, he said that “fairness and decency require that [Herzog] continue his position, and I would be happy if he would agree to it.”

Gabbay, who was considered a dark-horse candidate, said that as Herzog was elected to head the opposition, having won 24 seats for the party, he therefore should remain in that position until the next general election.

He also stressed that “the role of opposition head is not a currency to trade in.”

Gabbay, a former minister from the Kulanu party, is not a sitting MK, and therefore cannot be the Knesset opposition head. He must pick a lawmaker for that position, and a majority of opposition MKs must approve his choice.

Herzog was eliminated in the first round of the primary vote on Tuesday.

In an interview with Army Radio, Gabbay said he would want Herzog to remain as opposition head whether Herzog endorsed his candidacy or not.

“I have no reason to replace him with someone else,” Gabbay said. “I think that would be inappropriate. I told him that even if he supports Amir Peretz, as far as I’m concerned he can remain opposition head.”

Peretz finished in the lead with 32 percent (10,141 votes), followed by newcomer Gabbay with 27% (8,395), with a turnout of 59%.

Both candidates met with Herzog on Wednesday, seeking his endorsement, but the current party leader has not expressed support for either.

Peretz and Gabbay are both of Moroccan extraction, but the similarity ends there: A former Labor leader and defense minister, Peretz is a familiar face in the party with a trade unionist background, while Gabbay — a former environmental protection minister and CEO of the Bezeq telecommunications giant — is a new recruit to the socialist-minded camp.

Both Gabbay and Peretz on Wednesday expressed support for continuing the party’s partnership with Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua, which along with Labor makes up the Zionist Union faction. Livni was set to meet with both candidates as well.

Gabbay quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet in May 2016, after coalition talks brought the Yisrael Beytenu party into the government. In a dramatic tirade, he accused the coalition of leading Israel on a path to destruction.

That breakout moment for Gabbay, who was a political appointment by Kulanu’s leader, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, was followed by his crossing the aisle and joining the fight for the Labor leadership.

Polls released on Wednesday predict that whichever of the two becomes Labor leader, the party is project to lose seats and become only the third-largest party in the next Knesset, behind the ruling Likud and centrist Yesh Atid.

Marissa Newman contributed to this report.