Gabbay led Labor to only six seats in the April 9 election, down from the 24 it won in 2015 as part of the Zionist Union partnership of former MKs Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni.
By GIL HOFFMANAVI GABBAY: The loss of US support is the worst threat to Israel’s security ever(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The Labor Party must hold an immediate leadership primary to prepare for a possible election, Labor MKs and the party’s secretary-general wrote current Labor head Avi Gabbay in a letter on Tuesday.Gabbay led Labor to only six seats in the April 9 election, down from the 24 it won in 2015 as part of the Zionist Union partnership of former MKs Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni.The letter was written on behalf of MK Amir Peretz and Labor Secretary-General Eran Hermoni, with the support of MK Itzik Shmuli and former MK Omer Bar-Lev. It said they had drafted the support of 1,000 members of the Labor central committee.The signatories called for a party convention to be held within 30 days, between June 14 and 18, after the holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Shavuot and set a date for a primary.Gabbay has hinted but not said clearly that he would not run again. His number two, Tal Rousso, said in a radio interview that he did not know if he was ready to run after just entering the Knesset and delivering his first speech as an MK on Monday.Shmuli, who won the most votes in the last Labor Knesset primary, is expected to run.“If there are elections for Knesset, there must be elections for leader of Labor,” Shmuli told Ynet on Tuesday. “I am a leading candidate and I will consider running for the leadership.”Other possible candidates include MK Stav Shaffir, former MK Eitan Cabel, former Knesset candidate Yair Fink and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund head Danny Atar.Gabbay’s associates responded that the letter came to the press and not to him, and that Peretz was under pressure, not Gabbay.
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