Hatnuah chairwoman Tzipi Livni ripped Labor chief Avi Gabbay Wednesday morning, a day after he abruptly ended the alliance between their two parties.
On Tuesday morning, Gabbay announced publicly that he was ending the Zionist Union, a joint list of Labor and Hatnuah, which was formed ahead of the 2015 election.
Gabbay gave no prior notice of his plans to either Livni or fellow Labor members, leaving Livni stunned as she sat next to him during his Tuesday announcement.
Livni, who was caught unprepared by the announcement as she sat next to Gabbay, quickly left the room after Gabbay spoke, declining to offer a response.
On Wednesday, however, Livni spoke out on the sudden termination of the Zionist Union, saying that while she was shocked by Gabbay’s sudden announcement, she did not feel humiliated.
“I’m surprised, but not humiliated,” Livni said during an interview with Yediot Ahronot.
“If you want to break up our partnership, that’s your prerogative…Avi [Gabbay] planned a campaign that is all about ‘I need to be Prime Minister’, without any real plan. We knew that this was going to be bad, but I felt obliged [to stick with him].”
“At least call me up, make a meeting, tell me ‘Listen, this isn’t working out, this won’t lead to success, you and [Isaac Herzog] got 24 seats, and when I’m leading it [the Zionist Union] only gets 8. So each party should run separately. I would have said, ‘Sure thing,’ shook his hand, and made a press conference with us together saying that this isn’t working out, in a mutually respectful way.”
In a separate interview with Army Radio, Livni attacked Gabbay, saying the Labor chief for lacking a strong ideology, and calling him unfit to serve as premier.
“Everybody who saw what happened yesterday [at the press conference] knows he isn’t a candidate for premier.”
“He isn’t prime minister material, he has no real ideology.”