Labor leader Avi Gabbay was in negotiations with heads of Israeli gas companies about a top ranking position that would put him in charge of managing Tamar and Leviathan gas partnerships in 2013. The negotiations ended after he was told he will not be given such a position, Maariv reported on Saturday. Gabbay entered politics a year afterwards when, in 2014, he founded the centrist party Kulanu with Moshe Kahlon and Orna Angel. Gabbay later served as the Minister of Environmental Protection under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a role from which he resigned in 2016. When he served in that office, Gabbay accused gas companies of risking Israeli lives and attempting to bribe high-ranking officials. But at the same time, he was jockeying for a position in these same fields and did not reveal this information to anyone, including the Attorney General of Israel, nor did he mention it in writing when asked about potential conflict of interest in his role as Environmental Protection minister. Gabbay confirmed that such negotiations were held but claimed that he refused the job offer and was not rejected and that the gas companies sought him out, and not the other way around.
