MK Eitan Cabel
Photo: Eli Mendelbaum
MK Cabel recorded alluding to secret deal with Yachimovich
Despite denials from MKs Yachimovich and Cabel that the two colluded in a quid pro quo deal for mutual promotion, recordings show Cabel openly saying that Yachimovich committed to supporting his bid for the Labor party’s leadership.
MK Eitan Cabel (Labor) has denied that any agreement had been struck between him and Shelly Yachimovich (Zionist Union), despite a recording that publicized on Thursday evening in which Cabel can be heard saying: “I want to go to the Histadrut together with Shelly. Shelly is obligated to support me for the the leadership of the party.”
The statements, in which Cabel speaks openly about his ambitions to take the reins in the Labor party, were apparently recorded in a conversation with members of his faction in the Histadrut, whose support he sought to harness for the benefit of Yachimovich.
In the past, the two fiercely denied that Yachimovich promised to support Cabel if he ran for the leadership of the Labor party.
However, in the recorded conversation, Cabel admitted that he and Yachimovich had colluded and told his listeners that “I will need your help on this matter...The time has come.”
Eitan Cabel and Shelly Yachimovich (Photo: Amit Shabi)
Four were present in the recorded conversation which took place around a month ago before Yachimovich’s and Cabel’s denial, including the latter’s legal advisor, Itzik Yoel.
The recordings show Cabel using obscene language as he beseeched his listeners to help him fulfil what he described as a one-time opportunity.
“The whole time I said that the faction was a tool to promote me. Did I tell you this the whole time? It’s entire existence was to just a tool to promote me. Not the Histadrut. That doesn’t interest me. It doesn’t interest me to be in the Histadrut,” Cabel asserted.
“Life is a dynamic thing, politics is not something that sits and waits for you. Someone like you knows that. This is a massive opportunity for the Histadrut in in the Labor party.”
Cabel could also be heard making broken comments to those present about Yachimovich: “I want her to succeed because it will double the power...She does no less than 20% of all Labor’s work. I don’t love her. I’m not in love with her, you know? But she has her supporters. What is hers is hers. She came to me in the last elections and to her credit, what is hers is hers.
“She screwed me over after that, slaughtered me. For all my cursing the sh** out of her, she was right. She came to me, yes, came to me, and said ‘Eitan, you are leading massively, let’s shake hands. You and I will run. You will come out on top, I will come out on top’ and everyone will be screwed.”
In the same conversation with the four people present, Cabel explained why he had decided to run against Herzog. “Bibi wins because he cruel. It isn’t that Herzog isn’t cruel. He is conniving, deceitful and a schemer. I want to run for the leadership of the Labor party.”
Shelly Yachimovich and Isaac Herzog (Photo: Gil Yohanan and Motti Kimchi)
Turning his thoughts to Histadrut Chairman Avi Nissenkorn, Cabel had nothing but contempt. “He isn’t worth the party. He has no strength in the party. He is in the margins. He is not Ofer Eini (his predecessor) (who can tell people to come and go with him). He isn’t capable. This is an opportunity of my life. Do you want to take this from me?”
After saying that Yachimovich had committed to an alleged deal, Cabel emphasized the point with yet greater vigor.
“This is the biggest opportunity for me to take . How would you say it, my dream, and I need your help on the matter. The faction was established for me, the faction is to promote me. I said this the whole time,” he repeated.
Cabel also commented on the current state of the Labor party, effectively concluding it was in tatters.
“No one thought that the Labor party that had 24 mandates would look like such garbage. Suddenly an opportunity had come about for me. I could have been the chairman of the Keren Kayemet Leyisrael...but I don’t want to be. I don’t want to be,” he insisted.
“I will either be the Labor leader or I will be a part of the an explosion that will blow up Israeli politics, or I will go home and say friends, “You can all go f*** yourselves.”
After the recording became public, Cabel appeared to do a U turn. “All that I said in the conversation I said out of wishful thinking, that even I don’t know if I would actually want. There is not, and never was a deal between me and Shelly,” he claimed.
“I never asked her to support me for the party leadership and in any case, she never promised that she would. Selective leaks from an hours-long conversation is yet another fluttering of Nissenkorn and the Eini family to prevent my running and their efforts are indicative of the fear they feel. There is gossip value in these leaks and obviously no legal value. There will be elections and Nissenkorn will have to reconcile himself with this.”
For her part, Yachimovich followed suit, also claiming that no deal, neither verbal nor written, had ever taken place.
“Eitan Cabel never asked, never made conditions or made my support an issue. My support in the party is for independent people who don’t receive orders from anyone. My decision on who to support will, as always, be based on what is good and right for the party and the state and will not be based on political deals like these or any other. I suggest to Nissenkorn to stop his efforts to thwart elections, because they are a fait accompli.”
Responding to the recordings, opposition leader Isaac Herzog issued a statement saying: “This evening a corrupt deal has been exposed...This is fraud and a breach of trust against the wider public, and against members of the Labor party. The damage caused cannot be exaggerated but we know how to overcome it, to become stronger and to lead the party according on its social and political values back to the leadership of the country.”
