Tzipi Livni
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Tzipora (Tzipi) Livni (Hebrew: ציפורה (ציפי) לבני) (born Tel Aviv, July 5, 1958) is Foreign Affairs Minister and Vice Prime Minister1 of the state of Israel. Livni is a leading member of the Kadima Party.
Following the March 2006 Knesset election and the subsequent negotations for formation of Israel's 31st Government, some observers believed that Livni had emerged as "the second most powerful politician in Israel," after Ehud Olmert.2
Livni is Israeli's second-ever female foreign minister, the first being Golda Meir several decades prior.
[edit] Biography
Livni is the daughter of Eitan Livni, a Polish-born former Irgun member who was at one time a Likud member of the Knesset. She served as a lieutenant in the Israel Defense Forces and worked for the Mossad for four years during the early 1980s. A graduate of Bar Ilan University's Faculty of Law, she has experience as a practicing lawyer, specializing in public and commercial law.
She was first elected to the Knesset as a member of the Likud party in 1999. When Likud leader Ariel Sharon became prime minister in July 2001, Livni was appointed Minister of Regional Cooperation, and thereafter held various Cabinet positions including Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Minister of Immigrant Absorption and Minister of Housing and Construction. On 1 October 2005, she was appointed Minister of Justice after several months acting in that position.3
In Sharon's Cabinet, Livni was an avid supporter of the prime minister's disengagement plan and was generally considered to be among the key dovish members of the Likud party. She often mediated between hawkish and dovish elements inside the party, and gained publicity for her successful efforts to have the pullout from the Gaza Strip ratified by the Knesset. On 12 November 2005, she became the first member of the Israeli right-wing to speak at the official yearly commemoration of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination.
On November 20, 2005, Livni followed Sharon and Olmert into the new Kadima Party. Ahead of the 28 March elections Livni was appointed to be the new Foreign Minister, while continuing to serve as Justice Minister, as a result of the mass resignation of Likud Party members from the government.
In the selection of candidates for the March 2006 Knesset election, Livni was awarded the number three position on Kadima's list of candidates, which effectively guaranteed her election to the Knesset.
On 4 May 2006, with the swearing-in of the 31st Government, Livni became Vice (or Deputy) Prime Minister and retained the position of Foreign Minster. She ceased serving as Justice Minister at that time, but again held that position from 29 November 2006 to 7 February 2007, while still serving in her primary role of Foreign Minister.
Livni became the first Israeli cabinet minister to explicitly differentiate Palestinian guerrilla attacks against Israeli military targets from terrorist attacks against civilians. In an interview on the US television news show Nightline, recorded on 28 March 2006, Livni stated:
"Somebody who is fighting against Israeli soldiers is an enemy and we will fight back, but I believe that this is not under the definition of terrorism, if the target is a soldier."
On March 11, 2007, Livni held secret meetings with two senior Fatah members - Yasser Abed Rabbo and former finance minister Salam Fiad. According to Israel Radio, Livni discussed possible future negotiations and the Arab initiative.
Livni resides in Tel Aviv. She is married and has two children. Livni received the Abirat Ha-Shilton ("Quality of Governance") award for 2004.
| Preceded by Silvan Shalom |
Foreign Minister of Israel 2006–Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
[edit] Footnotes
Note 1: http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Government/Panel/ ; compare with [1] in which she is listed as Vice Prime Minister.
Note 2: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/01/AR2006050100298.html
Note 3: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1173879210859&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Note 4: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879211850&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Note 5: http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=213
Note 6: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1173879211850&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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| Pinchas Rosen (three times) • Dov Yosef (twice) • Haim Cohen • David Ben-Gurion • Yaakov Shimshon Shapiro (twice) • Golda Meir (twice) • Haim Yosef Tzadok • Menachem Begin • Shmuel Tamir • Moshe Nissim • Yitzchak Modai • Avraham Sharir • Dan Meridor • David Libai • Yaakov Neeman • Benjamin Netanyahu • Tzachi Hanegbi • Yossi Beilin • Meir Sheetrit (twice) • Yosef Lapid • Tzipi Livni (twice) • Haim Ramon • Daniel Friedmann |
