Tzipi Livni - New Israeli PM

Tashah · 09-20-08, 05:22 AM

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Israelis look to “Mrs Clean” after age of scandal
Sep 19, 2008
By Ari Rabinovitch

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - As Prime Minister Ehud Olmert bows out under a cloud of corruption allegations, Israelis hope his successor Tzipi Livni can live up to the “Mrs. Clean” label her supporters have given the new leader of the ruling party. “Livni's victory did not stem from a feat of organization or from political alliances,” columnist Nahum Barnea wrote when she was elected this week to succeed Olmert as Kadima party leader. “It stemmed from the public's general longing for new, fresh and mostly clean leadership,” the influential Barnea wrote in the country's best-selling newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

At the Israel branch of the worldwide anti-corruption group Transparency International, chief executive Galia Sagy told Reuters: “We hope she will bring change to the public agenda and introduce a different kind of politics, as she has said in the past, and restore the voters' trust in the leadership.”

Foreign minister Livni, a 50-year-old commercial lawyer and daughter of a prominent Zionist fighter from the days of Israel's creation in the 1940s, has tried to present herself as carrying a banner of integrity during her decade in politics. “It outrages me, the attempt to claim that it is a matter of norms that everyone who enters politics needs to adopt,” she said in May after Olmert's cash donations first came to light.

Livni is no stranger to the close personal ties that often exist in a small country between the business and political elite. She is married to a prominent advertising entrepreneur. But she has made a point of insisting politics must be clean. Four years ago, she was awarded an annual honor by the Movement for Quality Government, an anti-corruption lobby.

Source: Reuters

Although Livni is highly regarded for her high standards, she has certainly wheeled and dealed during her long political career. Nevertheless she is a breath of fresh air after Olmert. Still, I do not forsee her surviving the next general election without receiving reciprocal settlement concessions from the Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas.

donsutherland1 · 09-20-08, 08:17 PM

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Originally Posted by Tashah

Still, I do not forsee her surviving the next general election without receiving reciprocal settlement concessions from the Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas.

If the Palestinians and also Syrians are willing to bargain in good faith, they will be able to conclude a reasonable settlement with Tzipi Livni. Reciprocity, as you noted, will be vital. However, if the Palestinians show little flexibility and Ms. Livni takes a tougher tack in response, I don't believe that outcome will hurt her. In my opinion, her seeking to offer generous, even unilateral, concessions in return for little from the Palestinians is what would bring about her political downfall. My guess is that she won't go down that latter course, even as she desires a peace agreement. She understands Israel's interests and will not stray from them.

In the meantime, it will be interesting to see if the Likud-Labor talks lead to an agreement or understanding among the two parties that makes it difficult for Ms. Livni to build a governing coalition so as to force elections.

Jenin · 09-22-08, 04:19 PM

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Originally Posted by Tashah

Source: Reuters

Although Livni is highly regarded for her high standards, she has certainly wheeled and dealed during her long political career. Nevertheless she is a breath of fresh air after Olmert. Still, I do not forsee her surviving the next general election without receiving reciprocal settlement concessions from the Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas.

What concessions exactly can the Palestinians offer? They have just about conceded everything they can. The Palestinian Authority has recognized Israel even though Israel has not recognized the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homes and towns. This issue is a very important one, and the Palestinian Authority has called for it's own demise by offering such huge concessions on the right of return and land without even getting any feasible and "reciprocal" concession from Israel. The PA has recognized that Jerusalem must be shared (while Israel illegally annexed and continues to demographically destroy ancient Palestinian society in Jerusalem), that some settlements have to stay, that Palestine will be a geographically divided state of Gaza and WB. What the PA is requesting, very clearly, is that all these huge Palestinian concessions to historic and legitimate rights be reciprocated on the Israeli side by an honest and concrete withdrawal from the meager twenty something percent of Palestine occupied in 67. They are willing to make mutual and pragmatic border adjustments but are not going to accept continued Illegal Israeli settlement and barricade construction on their land as more "realities" that must be accepted. How can Mahmoud Abbas convince his people that peace through negotiations with Israel is the way forward when the life of Palestinians under occupation just gets worse? Israel has not even implemented Phase one of the Roadmap even though it has been obligated to do so for a very long time now. Olmert's promises in Annapolis after an unprecedented and clearly unified Arab offer for full peaceful normalized relations to halt settlement activity and ease checkpoints were in reality political soundbites that only gave hope now lost again. Maybe Livni's experience in negotiating with old guard PLO leaders like Abu Ala' can give her a certain confidence and public trust that she can deliver peace, but this cannot ever occur until Israel drops it's Zionist narriative of exclusive Jewish ownership to this land and recognizes the devastation it has caused to an entire nation of people inorder to become what it is today.

Livni must recognize three things inorder to deliver a peace for her people in agreement with Palestine:

1) East Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine, the muslim and christian Palestinian sites and residences of the old city should be sovereign to Palestine.

2) The Palestinian refugees have every right to return. The huge palestinian concession of accepting a very limited return should be met by the huge israeli obligation to recognize their crime against them and by the huge israeli obligation to provide a contiguous palestinian state with a contiguous east Jerusalem as it's capital.

3) Palestine will not be a subordinate of Israel, she will be israel's equal.