Report: Labor officials turn to ex-chair Gabbay to help oust leader Peretz

Amid fallout from the formation of the left-wing Democratic Camp party, senior members of the Labor party have reportedly appealed to former chairman Avi Gabbay for help in ousting new party leader Amir Peretz.

According to an unsourced Ynet report Thursday, the unnamed senior officials believe Peretz “is endangering the continued existence of the party.”

They are reportedly urging Gabbay to file a motion to remove Peretz from his post at a party conference later this month when members will be called on to approve Labor’s merger with Orly Levy-Abekasis’s Gesher party.

Gabbay himself lost leadership of the party earlier this month after falling from grace with its membership, having led Labor to its worst-ever electoral result during the April election with only six seats in the Knesset.

In response to the report Labor said: “The motion to unite Labor and Gesher will pass with a huge majority on Wednesday, and we will set out on a new path that will rebuild the Labor party and offer a true social and political platform to Israelis.

“We will eventually eject any and all subversion from within.”

The announcement Thursday morning that Meretz head Nitzan Horowitz, defecting popular Labor MK Shaffir, and former prime minister Ehud Barak had agreed to run on a joint slate threw Labor into chaos.

Peretz, who only a week ago celebrated his new union with Levy-Abekasis as one that would strengthen and rejuvenate his party, now faces the prospect of further defections and a crumbling base. Hours after Shaffir announced her departure from the party, Labor No. 2 Itzik Shmuli urged Peretz to reverse his decision against unification with Meretz and Barak, and indicated he could also switch sides if Peretz failed to do so.

The merger was welcomed among many on the left as a way to keep votes from being drawn away by parties that may not cross the electoral threshold, but also drew grumbles of dissatisfaction from those who thought the move would dilute Meretz’s purist left-wing brand.

Shmuli first broke ranks with Peretz on Wednesday amid stewing chagrin over Peretz’s decision to merge Labor with Gesher, which is further to the right on the political spectrum. Peretz later said he would not bring his party into a union with Barak’s Israel Democratic Party or Meretz.

Oshi Elmaliah, a close confidant of Barak, told Army Radio the new faction “would be very happy to see Itzik Shmuli and other people joining.”

The Labor party itself welcomed the Democratic Camp alliance, which it said “will prevent votes lost on a slate that won’t pass the electoral threshold,” referring to Barak’s faction, “and threatened to lose votes for the center-left.”

Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White party that is expected to dominate the center-left bloc in September elections, welcomed the move as “important” to prevent lost votes, but insisted his party would continue to be the main alternative to a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Analysts had predicted that a left bloc split into three parties — Meretz, Labor-Gesher, and IDP — would only draw enough votes for two of them to clear the 3.25% threshold to enter the Knesset, thus making it harder for the center-left to form a ruling coalition.

MK Tamar Zandberg, a former Meretz leader who is fourth on the Democratic Camp slate, said in an interview with Army Radio that the party is still hoping to woo former justice minister Tzipi Livni to join them, and that she could possibly be made party leader.

Livni retired from politics before the previous elections in April, which failed to produce a coalition majority leading to fresh elections being set in September.

Party slates must be finalized by the end of next week ahead of the September 17 elections.

Stuart Winer contributed to this report.