Former Environment Protection Minister Avi Gabai announced on Saturday night that he would run for the position of chairman of the Labor party.
Gabai was one of the founders of Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu party and had served as a Cabinet minister who is not an MK. He resigned from his post last May, in protest over the appointment of Avigdor Liberman to the post of Defense Minister, and joined Labor last December.
“I am a candidate. I am running - and we will win. Dear friends, I decided to run for the leadership of the Labor party in order to turn it into a party that wins elections,” Gabai wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday.
“The tradition and the experience indicate that the Labor party is the only alternative to power, and under my leadership it will bring back to its ranks voters who temporarily parked their vote at Yesh Atid, will attract new audiences and serve as a real home for them, provide a brave and confident alternative – and will know how to win elections, replace Netanyahu and work for change and correction across the country – for the benefit of the entire people of Israel and not for anyone’s personal political survival,” he vowed.
“The long years of the Netanyahu government have accustomed us to think in terms of fear rather than hope. Of stagnation rather than initiative. Of polarization instead of finding common ground. Of conduct rather than management. We have become accustomed to a government that works for itself instead of for us, a government that is preoccupied with the next headline and with the spin that will allow it to remain in power. A government that is the exact opposite of everything that Zionism represents, the exact opposite of the values with which this wonderful country was founded. We have become accustomed, and then we became indifferent and have lost faith that it can change. We should not think so. It can be repaired, it can change, and we will change it. I believe it with all my heart.”
Gabai’s announcement came a day after MK Omer Barlev announced his intention to run for the leadership of the Labor party.
When asked what advantage he has over other candidates for the party leadership, such as Yitzhak Herzog, Shelly Yechimovich, Eitan Cabel, and Erel Margalit, Barlev said, "I am the one who can lead Labor and restore it as the party that deals with the future of Israel and its security, after some 55,000 members have lost confidence in our ability to bring about change in the party and in Israel."
He said that Labor must focus on security again, as that is the issue that citizens care about the most, and it is the issue which he believes lost the Zionist Union the last election.