Gabbay in Sderot: Where is Netanyahu?

"Instead of coming to visit the residents of the south, he's sitting in his beautiful living room,"

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Avi Gabbay, the leader of Israel's centre-left Labour party, delivers his victory speech after winning the Labour party primary runoff, at an event in Tel Aviv, Israel July 10, 2017. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Avi Gabbay, the leader of Israel's centre-left Labour party, delivers his victory speech after winning the Labour party primary runoff, at an event in Tel Aviv, Israel July 10, 2017.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
After a weekend barrage of rockets from Gaza, opposition leader Avi Gabbay visited Sderot on Sunday and blasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his not having visited communities near the Gaza border since the beginning of the current round of escalation.
“He hasn’t been in Sderot since April 9. How can it be that there have been 100 days of fires here and the prime minister hasn’t come? He has lost all connection with the public,” Gabbay said in an interview on Army Radio Sunday morning.
"Instead of coming to visit the residents of the south, he's sitting in his beautiful living room," he said.
Gabbay had earlier called for Netanyahu to be ousted for his management of the escalation with Gaza.
“This [rocket fire] is the result of four years of the security cabinet not making decisions,” Gabbay said at a Labor party meeting held at Kibbutz Be'eri in the south of Israel.
“The prime minister cares only about covering his own behind when the security cabinet convenes, so there has been no diplomatic, economic or strategic pressure applied to make the rocket fire stop. Nothing is being done, except waiting or rocket fire and then the army responding. The prime minister has failed to provide security to residents of the Gaza periphery, so the time has come for him to go," Gabbay added.
Gil Hoffman contributed reporting.