Avi Gabbay
Avi GabbayHillel Maeir/TPS

Labor chairman Avi Gabbay on Friday dismissed the polls which predict his party will not reach double digits in Knesset seats in the next elections.

In an interview with Hadashot TV in the wake of his decision earlier this week to end Labor’s partnership with Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party, Gabbay expressed confidence he would replace Binyamin Netanyahu as Israel’s Prime Minister.

"Our test is at the polls," Gabbay declared. "We do not have another test before that. Just as I have been told many times in the past that I will not succeed - in many of the things I have done in my life - this time they tell me the same things, and I know what I have done in the last year and a half. I’ve been all over the country.”

He also dismissed the growing revolt in the Labor party and the calls to dismiss him over the party’s failure to make gains in the polls.

"The majority of the party, the vast majority of the party, is against this thing - so you understand that everything is okay in this matter," Gabbay insisted. "This party is alive and flourishing. So there are those who are against, because they were part of an attempt to split the party, and they did not succeed, I managed to prevent them from doing so.”

He also discussed the possibility that Labor will run together with other parties in order to strengthen its position – a point of contention between him and Livni and one of the reasons for his abrupt decision to end the partnership with her.

"Do you know the difference between me and all those who talk a lot about connections? I am actually working on it," Gabbay said. "I meet with people discreetly, talk to people and in this way we can get there."

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)