MKs Itzik Shmuli and Stav Shaffir are among the possible candidates for Labor leader.
By GIL HOFFMANLabor chairman Avi Gabbay speaking at Expo Tel Aviv(photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI)
Labor leader Avi Gabbay will leave his post after leading the party to a record low of six mandates. But he has not yet decided when and how to quit, MKs who met with him since Tuesday’s election said on Thursday.Gabbay is considering initiating a quick leadership race to replace him or having veteran MK Amir Peretz serve as acting leader for a set time while the party recovers from the election, before initiating a race for Labor leader.MKs Itzik Shmuli and Stav Shaffir are among the possible candidates for Labor leader.Gabbay has decided to remain an MK. Gabbay’s No. 2, former general Tal Rousso, will decide his political future over the weekend.Labor MK Nachman Shai said “a leader who failed cannot be allowed to keep his job and the sooner he leaves, the more he leaves with honor.”Labor Secretary-General Eran Hermoni met with Gabbay on Thursday morning and told him he should have already quit his job immediately when exit polls revealed that Labor won only six seats.“After the results were such a disaster, he should have taken responsibility and resigned,” he said.Hermoni, who was 11th on the Labor list, said Gabbay’s departure was the needed first step in a healing process for the party.MK Eitan Cabel, who was 15th on the list, said in radio interviews on Thursday that if Gabbay followed the rules of the business world, where he came from, he would have already been handed his belongings and ordered a taxi at his own expense.
