""Labor chose life," MK Shelly Yachimovich described Avi Gabbay's victory in the party leadership elections this evening. It is still too early to assess where the new chairman will lead the veteran party - but the message was clear: The rumors about the death of the Israeli left were too premature. The left is alive, its heart is beating, and it is hungry for victory.
So hungry that he's willing to bet the whole pot.
The election of Gabbay is a sign of life, but it is a big gamble. The man comes from nowhere and no one knows at all whether he is right-wing or left-wing, capitalist or socialist, democrat or autocrat. He may indeed turn out to be a rare political meteor who will sweep away masses of voters in the general election, but on the other hand he may well crash into the abyss and drag the battered party with him.
This is a big risk, which 52.4% of the Labor Party officials chose to take.
They preferred him over Amir Peretz, the old, familiar, and experienced brand, because they understood that if they didn't take a risk, there wouldn't be a chance. They chose the blank slate, on which every functionary drew the leader of his dreams, the man who brought hope, the man who (maybe) would bring power.
message used and innovative
Avi Gabbay stood tonight, emotional and tearful, on the speakers' podium at the Tel Aviv Exhibition Center. His stance did not radiate charisma, his rhetoric was not particularly polished, and his speech was not aggressive at all, but it was precisely this "matter-of-factness" - as he calls it - that brought him the unexpected victory.
Gabbay's message to the Israeli public is both old-fashioned and innovative at the same time. Old-fashioned because all leaders before him described in one way or another how much and how they would work for the citizens, but innovative because few leaders before him managed to express the message in such a way that inspires confidence.
This is Gabbay's only chance, with which he must break through the boundaries of the party and the elite with all his might into every Israeli living room.
Gabbay still has a very long way to go before victory in the general election is even considered a realistic possibility. He needs to gather around him the hornet's nest sometimes called the "Labor Party," survive the media crusade that will follow his every stumble with blazing headlights, and compete for a long time against the three great political wizards, Netanyahu, Kahlon, and Lapid.
The left will not win if it does not change the paradigms that dominate Israeli discourse. It needs to instill the understanding that the 790,000 Labor voters are no less "the people" than the 990,000 Likud voters. That leftists are actually ordinary people like everyone else, who love the country and are only offering a different way to bring it to success.
For this task, Avi Gabbay is undoubtedly the most suitable man.
Hope of Winners
If politics is a pendulum, today's politics is a roller coaster. The notion that "the right will rule here for the next 50 years" is no less foolish than the thought that Bozhi Herzog will form a coalition with Meretz, Yesh Atid, and the Haredim.
Public opinion changes more often than we tend to tell ourselves. The most important lesson to learn from the 2015 election campaign is that you can never predict how public opinion will change. Because it tends to change suddenly, quickly, and with great force.
Avi Gabbay will try to offer Israelis a product they have almost forgotten about: hope. He will describe in vivid colors what a government that works for its citizens would look like and how an efficient public service that is oriented toward the ordinary citizen would operate. He will also try to convince them that there is no chance that the Labor Party, which represents a large part of the Israeli people, will abandon Israel's security. This is the positive campaign he is talking about. The campaign that has brought him phenomenal success so far. Authenticity is his weapon, the positive spirit is his ammunition.
This is the power of Avi Gabbay, which Netanyahu, Kahlon and Lapid should fear. He has great potential to endear himself to Israelis and gain their trust. He is not experienced enough and is not charismatic at all, but Gabbay is an exceptionally bright man with a keen political instinct, as has been proven in the past month.
If he continues on this path, his chances of success will increase significantly.
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