Where is Avi Gabbay?

Last time that Gabbay said he was sick, he was actually on a mission to Dubai, UAE

FEBRUARY 18, 2019 14:10

Labor Party Chair Avi Gabbay (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST) — Labor Party Chair Avi Gabbay

(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

Labor leader Avi Gabbay just announced that he will not speak at Monday's Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations because he is sick.

Last time that Gabbay said he was sick, he was actually on a trip to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

They just announced that @GabbayAvi isnt speaking to the @Conf_of_Pres because he is sick. The last time he said he was sick, he was really in Dubai.
— Gil Hoffman (@Gil_Hoffman) February 18, 2019

In January, The Jerusalem Post's Gil Hoffman reported that Gabbay traveled via Amman to Abu Dhabi from December 2 to 4, 2018, for meetings organized by Moroccan mediators, who helped him get meetings with senior officials in the Arab world that have not yet been revealed. It also noted that Gabbay updated Mossad head Yossi Cohen upon his return to Israel.

Gabbay would not confirm the report, with Gabbay’s spokeswoman saying only that “Gabbay deals with the diplomatic issue a lot, and he has a detailed plan for restoring negotiations based on confidence building measures with the Palestinians and Arab countries.”

The report angered Knesset members in Gabbay’s faction, since on the day he was reportedly in Abu Dhabi, he told them he would miss the faction’s Hanukkah party because he was not feeling well. He did not even inform his then-partner in the Zionist Union, former foreign minister Tzipi Livni that he was not ill but rather traveling.

However, according to Gabbay's spokesperson, it is confirmed that this time he is, in fact, sick.