Tzipi Livni

From AICbackground

Tzipi Livni

Kadima Party Leader

Quotes

"(Let us) come out and tell Abbas, as well as the Palestinian people as a whole, that holding elections in which terror organizations participate means failing to meet their obligations under the road map--this is not democratization."

"The people of Israel have a national and historic right to the land of Israel. Because there is a need for Israel to remain a Jewish majority, we will have to give up part of the land of Israel in order to maintain a democratic, Jewish state."

"The Palestinians will have to commit to dismantle the terror organizations, collect illegal arms and carry out security reforms. Israel will keep the major settlement blocks, and Jerusalem will remain unified."

"The process clearly is a process that leads in the direction of two states. We will lead in the direction of two states."

Early Years and Education

You were born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1958. You are the daughter of a Polish born former ETZEL member and Likud Member of Parliament. You served as a Lieutenant in the Israeli Defense Forces and worked for the Mossad (Israeli intelligence agency) for four years during the early 1980s.

You graduated from Bar Ilan University’s Faculty of Law. You have years of experience as a lawyer and specialize in public, commercial, constitutional and real estate law. You practiced law in a private firm for ten years before entering politics.

Public Life

In 1996, you were appointed Director General of the Government Companies authority. In this role, you were in charge of the privatization of government corporations and monopolies. You were elected to the Knesset (Israeli parliament) in 1999 as a member of the Likud (conservative) party. You served as a member of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and the Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women. In 2001, you were appointed Minister in the 29th Government, serving as Minister of Regional Cooperation, Minister without Portfolio, and Minister of Agriculture. In 2003, you were appointed Minister of Immigrant Absorption in the 30th Government and also served as Minister of Housing and Construction. In December 2004 you were appointed Minister of Justice, and in January 2006 - Minister of Foreign Affairs.

You were Israel’s second ever female foreign minister, the first being Golda Meir. Acclaimed by both right and left wing Israelis, you won the Abirat Ha-Shilton Award for 2004 (Quality of Governance Award). In 2005, you joined Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in his departure from the Likud party and became one of the founders of the new Kadima Party. There was speculation that you, because of his poor health, would succeed Ariel Sharon as head of Kadima. People questioned, however, if you had sufficient experience for the position of prime minister. Initially, you expressed support for Ehud Olmert who succeeded Sharon as prime minister and as leader of Kadima.

In the summer of 2006, Israel entered into open warfare with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. As Foreign Minister, you supported this action on the basis of self-defense since it was well-established that Hezbollah initiated the fight by indiscriminately targeting Israeli civilians with rockets fired south out of their bases in Lebanon. Indeed, you helped stir world opinion in favor of the Israeli position to the point where multiple Sunni-Arab states like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait openly condemned Hezbollah. This was significant since most of these states rarely ever make such public statements decrying action against Israel! However, as the summer offensive progressed, it became clear that Olmert and his military leadership were bungling the operation and world opinion swiftly returned to neutral or even anti-Israeli. You, yourself, became quite vocal in denouncing Olmert and his military staff for being too aggressive and irresponsibly taking the fight beyond Hezbollah by targeting the Lebanese population in general.

This major blunder along with multiple corruption scandals eventually brought down Olmert in September 2008. The Kadima party, sensing his downfall but not wanting to relinquish power, called for elections to establish a new party leader. You ran against Olmert's deputy prime minister, Shaul Mofaz, and won a close election. As Kadima Party leader, the prime ministry is yours and you once again follow in Golda Meir's footsteps as the second female Premier of Israel. Yet, your time for celebration is short since you must shore up a strong coalition rapidly else the conservative Likud party will gain popularity and end Kadima's run in power.

Domestic Issues of Concern

As a member of the Kadima party, you favor the creation of two states to bring about peace in Israel. You avidly supported Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan and were considered to be one of the more dovish members of the right-wing Likud party when you were affiliated with it. You thought it would be best to join the Kadima party because it is important for the party that leads Israel to have a platform that is about ‘values or ideas’ and realize that ‘at the end of the day, there are going to be two states.’ You think it is important to have a sovereign Jewish and democratic state in the Jewish homeland. You realize that in order to come to this goal successfully, a two state solution must be established. You believe that the road to peace should be a two-part process. First, the Israelis will give up some of their rights to land (as they began to do under the disengagement plan) and then the Palestinians will work towards democratization. They must reform and dismantle terrorist organizations and then, after all this is done, the two states could begin to negotiate on the nature of the two states.

The disengagement plan--even under Sharon--has long been considered a fallacy by the Palestinians as Israel continues to allow, if not encourage, Jewish settlers to occupy and settle on lands set aside for the Palestinian state in the two-state plan. Olmert certainly did nothing to stop this continual encroachment probably in an attempt to appease Likud Knesset members who were calling for his head, politically. The two-state plan, disengagement plan and settlements are all extremely contentious ideas inside Israeli politics which you must attempt to solve. You've fashioned yourself as a moderate leader in a moderate, consensus-building party but you must contend with a right that believes might equals right and a left that demands peace with the Arabs at almost any cost.

You are adamantly opposed to terrorism, and believe the only way the Israelis and Palestinians can reach peace is if terrorism initiated by the Palestinians is eliminated. For this reason, you loathe the Hamas party. You have said that having Hamas participate in the Palestinian Parliament is ‘totally against any democratic values.’ You work to ensure the international community understands that the reason Israel accepted open elections in Palestine was to help dismantle terrorist organizations. Your overall domestic goals are to bring about peace in Israel by cooperating with peace-minded Palestinians which currently means their Fatah Party. However, peace cannot come at the expense of security or you will be quickly out of a job. You must find the right balance between the two.

Foreign Relations

Israel is allied with the United States as well as some nations in Africa and Asia. You do share normalized relations with Egypt and Jordan through peace treaties brokered by the US. Jordan is by far your closest Arab friend and one you personally value greatly from your time as foreign minister. Most other Arab nations remain neutral or hostile towards Israel. Iran, a Shi'a Persian (not Arab) nation, is considered your archenemy and you view Syria increasingly as their client state. Most European nations attempt to be neutral to both sides with the exceptions of Great Britain, France and Russia. Great Britain typically favors Israel and France often sides with the Arabs, especially Lebanon and Syria. Russia can be a wildcard but more often sides with the Arabs as a counter to the Americans. In general, foreign relations remain difficult for the Israelis given their overwhelming support from the US.

The single foreign policy precedence which you must adhere to is simple: Keep the Americans close! All other relationships are secondary and matter little to your policy development. That said, you do have some influential actors in the Middle East who you can work with. In general, you view Jordan and Palestinian Fatah as worthy and fair negotiators.

Role Playing Notes

You are an intelligent law graduate who is a strong proponent of peace in Israel through the process of cooperation with the non-terrorist fractions of the Palestinian government (Fatah).

You are a well-rounded, experienced politician in both internal and external matters.

Being a dovish politician by contrast with your former Likud colleagues, your rivals in the Israeli political community include those who take a more radical approach to the Palestinian conflict. Unlike them, you believe that the only way to reach peace in the area is to make some concessions to the Palestinians--a policy that some members of the Israeli government vehemently oppose.

You are known as a bridge-builder able to "reach across the aisle" in order to find compromise. A solution founded on compromise is much more important to you than no solution at all.

References

http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/israel/intro/#1

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2003/2/Tzipi+Livni.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzipi_Livni

http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/tzipi_livni/

http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/feeds/ap/2006/01/06/ap2433235.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadima

Washingtonpost.com- 'There Will Be Two States'