News
Tzipi Livni will head new party in January election
Tzipi Livni put an end to weeks of speculation yesterday by announcing that she will return to politics at the head of a new centrist party called Hatnuah (The Movement).
Livni served as Israel’s foreign minister from 2006-2009 and took over the leadership of Kadima following Ehud Olmert’s resignation in 2008. However, she was unable to form a coalition government following the 2009 election and lost the leadership of Kadima to Shaul Mofaz earlier this year.
At yesterday’s news conference, marking her political return, Livni vowed to provide an alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said, “I came to fight for peace, I came to fight for security.” She criticised the current government, saying “The Israeli people deserve better than a life in between rounds of violence” and accused it of failure, commenting “A government that initially refused to say two states is getting one in the UN and one in Gaza.”
Livni did not reveal yesterday who will be running with her on the Hatnuah list, but Haaretz reports this morning that Kadima MKs Yoel Hasson, Shlomo Molla, Majali Wahabi and Rachel Adatto have announced their plans to join Livni and will likely be joined by three or four other current Kadima legislators.
Initial polls reportedly indicate that Hatnuah is set to win seven to nine Knesset seats. They are likely to come at the expense of existing centre-left parties, which were quick to condemn Livni’s candidature. Labour Party leader Shelly Yachimovich called Livni’s decision a “bitter mistake” adding that instead of focusing on opposing the current government, “we are now dealing with the formation of new parties in the centre.” Meanwhile, a statement on behalf of Yesh Atid, whose leader Yair Lapid had reportedly offered Livni the second slot on his party list, said “It is unfortunate that Livni refused to take part in real change for the lives of Israeli citizens.”
In other Israeli political news, the attorney general is set to close the investigation of Foreign Minister and Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Lieberman in the ‘straw companies’ case, in which he was suspected of illegally receiving millions of pounds in payments from private business people while a member of Knesset and the cabinet. However, Lieberman looks likely to be charged with the lesser offence of breach of trust in a separate case.