Labor party chairman Avi Gabbay has announced he is retiring from political life.
"I have decided to follow my heart and my truth and take myself off of the list for the next Knesset," Gabbay wrote to his followers on social media.
Gabbay apparently made the decision after realizing that his plan to reserve himself a slot on the next Knesset list would face considerable difficulties, and that were he to run for election, he would not be elected to a realistic spot on the party list.
In a post to Twitter, Wednesday night, Gabbay wrote, "As part of the discussions over the structure of the list for the next Knesset, a majority of faction members supported the freezing of the Knesset list, with the exception of the chairman."
Gabbay said the party's culture of ousting leaders had not changed, "and although I believed I could [bring about that change], I did not succeed. The party is in a major crisis, and I do not absolve myself of responsibility."
According to Gabbay, one of the reasons there are problems with the party culture is that former Labor heads remain on the list.
"In the world outside of politics," he noted, "when a CEO leaves, he moves on and does not become subordinate to those who were beneath him. There were four former chiefs beneath me. Naturally, this is a phenomenon that leads to personal problems, and I do not want to be a continuation of that phenomenon.
"I believe that a party that cannot come together and move forward, cannot come to the public and propose to run the country. In the end, we are talking about the lives and the quality of life of the Israeli public – not just an internal partisan political game."
Gabbay had refused to step down as party chief following Labor's dismal showings in the recent election – the worst in the party's history – but it appears the negotiations over entering a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in violation of all of his campaign promises to the contrary were what forced him to announce he would not vie for the party's leadership a second time.
In media interviews last week, Gabbay promised he would not act to reserve himself a slot on Labor's list for the next Knesset. On Monday, however, it came to light that Gabbay had, in fact, asked to have the Labor conference reserve him the No. 2 slot on the list.
On Wednesday, the Tel Aviv District Court ordered the party to hold a referendum among its members over Gabbay's proposal to cancel the primaries for party list and instead rely on the existing list, while reserving the No. 2 slot for Gabbay. Upon realizing party members would vote to hold primaries, Gabbay made the decision to retire from political life.
After overcoming Amir Peretz in the second round of voting, Gabbay was predicted to garner over 20 Knesset seats for the Labor party. But within a matter of months, he brought the party down to just 12 seats, and Labor would only continue to deteriorate from there.
During his tenure, it was revealed that before becoming one of the leading voices in the opposition to the natural gas framework deal, Gabbay had courted Israeli energy mogul Yitzhak Tshuva in an effort to see himself appointed CEO of Delek's drilling project. It also came to light that Gabbay had not spoken truthfully when he had previously claimed never to have voted for Likud.
But from the perspective of left-wing voters, the straw that broke the camel's back was Gabbay's remark that "the Left had forgotten what it is to be Jewish." While Gabbay claimed his comment was taken out of context, it was later revealed that he had repeated this remark at numerous opportunities and in various forums.
