Israeli Labor’s new leaders must rebrand party
With the Labor Party in continuous decline, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not really care who will be its leader.
The winds of change blowing through the Labor Party can be deceptive, even though Knesset members Amir Peretz and Avi Gabbay just advanced to the second round in the party's leadership primaries. Regardless of whether the party members elect Gabbay, a political novice, who only joined the party eight months ago, or a more experienced politician such as Peretz, who once served as defense minister, neither of them will be the dark horse of the next election. Assuming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is, once again, the Likud's candidate for prime minister in the next election, there is no reason for him to worry about the Labor's turnabout.
First of all, the party failed to recruit a new candidate with real public and security standing, such as former Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, to defeat the right and win power. Furthermore, there already is a large and powerful centrist party (Yesh Atid) headed by Yair Lapid, who has proved his mettle as a fairly talented survivor. Given these conditions, Peretz or Gabbay will have to transform the Labor Party into the largest platform in the center-left bloc, and this is no simple task.
