HOPES FOR NEW ERA IN ISRAEL AS LABOUR LEADER VOWS CHANGE
Avi Gabbay pledges to restart peace talks and give back parts of East Jerusalem to the Palestinians
There is no doubt the election of Gabbay gave hope for many people that there is a chance to change this government
Few people had heard of Avi Gabbay when he joined Israel’s Labour party six months ago. But last week he stunned Israelis by winning the Labour leadership contest.
Now, his victory is inspiring hope among many Jews and Palestinians that he can become prime minister and usher in a better era for the region.
“There is no doubt the election of Gabbay gave some hope for many people that there is a chance to change this government and this is good news for all the citizens of Israel, and Arabs might get benefit out of it,” said Aida Touma-Sliman, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, from the left-wing Hadash party.
If Mr Gabbay becomes prime minister, it would probably mean a significant change in Israel’s approach to the Palestinians. He has promised to restart peace talks and make measured concessions, such as giving control of Arab neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
He says he will cut off funding for isolated settlements in the West Bank, while striving to retain major settlement blocs as part of a peace deal, in exchange for giving Palestinians territory that is part of Israel.
But he has also said that Israel will keep control of the West Bank’s Jordan River valley, saying it is necessary for security. That is incompatible with the Palestinian demand for independence in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict “is solvable”, Mr Gabbay said on his website. “To advance a solution to it, courageous and determined leadership is necessary, leadership that doesn’t involve itself in spins, incitement and sowing divisions between sectors of the nation, but rather cares about the state.”
Mr Gabbay, 50, was formerly a minister of environmental protection for the right-wing Kulanu party in prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition before shifting gears.
In May last year, he resigned from the cabinet when far-right leader Avigdor Lieberman was appointed defence minister.
“I respected that he quit the government. Lieberman was a red line for him, which is good,” Ms Touma-Sliman said.
But some Arab leaders are less sanguine about Labour’s new head and doubt he has what it takes to reverse discrimination against the Arab minority and forge a just settlement of the conflict with the Palestinians.
“In the end, he’s mainstream Labour party. There is a party platform and he will act according to it,” said Mtanes Shehadeh, secretary-general of the Arab nationalist Balad party.
Mr Gabbay’s parents emigrated to Israel from Morocco, which might appeal to Sephardic Jews of Middle Eastern background who often favour Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party. He did his military service as a lieutenant in the intelligence corps. In 1999, he joined the Israeli telecoms giant Bezeq, rising to chief executive in 2007.
Veteran Israeli political analyst Leslie Susser described Mr Gabbay as “extremely intelligent, quick to understand problems, very solution-oriented. He was a very successful executive at Bezeq and the fact that he was able to come in and win the Labour party shows he has organisational skills”.
Right-wing detractors say his messages are vague and that Mr Netanyahu dwarfs him in terms of experience.
“He wants to be the man for all seasons who looks at social issues from the left and is OK with the centre-right as well,” said Zalman Shoval, a former Likud member of the Knesset. “So he avoids ‘annoying’ statements on the territories.
“He came into politics from nowhere. The moment will come when he will have to give an answer on where he stands.
“Netanyahu, in our relations with the world and the Palestinians, is the most capable and experienced person. Gabbay is out of the realm in these issues,” Mr Shoval said.
Whoever is right, Mr Gabbay’s victory has created a buzz and inspired hope among the moribund left – which has never recovered from Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination in 1995 – and also in the Palestinian Authority, whose president, Mahmoud Abbas, called Mr Gabbay to congratulate him.
Since his victory, Labour has shot up in the opinion polls.
But Mr Gabbay still lags behind Mr Netanyahu when it comes to who voters consider the most qualified to be prime minister. In the most recent Channel Ten poll, 37 per cent said Mr Netanyahu was most qualified for the job, with Mr Gabbay in second place with 14 per cent.
Still, Mr Susser believes Mr Gabbay has a chance at the job, especially if Mr Netanyahu is forced out by corruption scandals.
Only this week, Israeli state comptroller Yosef Shapira found that as communications minister from 2015 until May this year, Mr Netanyahu acted improperly by making decisions that affected Bezeq while failing to disclose that the company’s chief executive at the time, Shaul Elovitz, was a close friend. Mr Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing
Zuheir Bahloul, an Arab Knesset member from the Labour party, predicted that Mr Gabbay would dramatically shift policy towards the Palestinians if elected.
“I spoke to him about the need to meet Abbas, restore diplomatic sanity and proceed by means of dialogue with the Palestinian side. I found in him a responsive listener.
“He is very serious about these issues,” Mr Bahloul said. If he takes courage and will be the man that I feel he is, then we are heading to a new era.”