Labor Party Continues Self-Destruct

The Labor party continued its downward spiral on Wednesday as three of its Knesset members announced they would not seek re-election, two of them citing irreconcilable differences with party chairman Avi Gabbay.

MKs Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin and Eitan Broshi both said their departure was due to Gabbay.

Nahmias-Verbin said Gabbay’s announcement to jettison Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah& — which he made in front of Livni without first informing her — was “the straw that broke the camel’s back” and called it a “strategic mistake,” according to The Times of Israel.

She said the “basic rules of political conduct” were violated.

Broshi said in a statement that “the current state of the Labor Party worries me a great deal, and there is a real fear that it will never return to& lead the country.”

The party has 24 seats in the outgoing Knesset, but polls show it falling to single digits in April.

The third MK, Hilik Bar said he would still campaign for the party& ahead of the April 9 elections. Bar said he was not leaving political life, however, and that he intended to work towards a two-state peace solution with the Palestinians.

Gabbay feigned unconcern at their decisions to leave. He tweeted Wednesday that Labor last month signed up 4,600 party members and 40 candidates for its Knesset list.

He wished the three well, and said he was “very happy” to see new faces in the party.

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