JERUSALEM, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Labor Party on Monday elected a political newcomer to head the opposition party, hoping he could defeat long-time incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the elections expected in 2019.
Avi Gabbay, 50, won a runoff vote against Amir Peretz, a former party leader and Israel's former minister of defense.
Gabbay, a businessman, had surprised observers last week when he gained the second place in the first round of vote, beating Labor Party Chairman Isaac Herzog.
Gabbay, a former member of the center-right party of Kulanu, joined the Labor Party in December 2016, months after quitting Netanyahu's government, where he served as Minister of Environmental Protection.
Gabbay is the former chief executive officer of Bezeq, Israel's largest telecom company. In his campaign, he stressed his humble background as the seventh of eight children born to a Jewish immigrant family from Morocco.
The Labor Party had been for decades Israel's ruling party, with leaders such as David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin. It first lost its lead to the Likud in 1977 and has been sitting in the opposition since 2001.
