"GLOBE EDITORIAL: Give Livni a chance
TZIPI LIVNI, Israel's foreign minister, emerged this week as the leader of the governing Kadima Party and the favorite to succeed Ehud Olmert as prime minister. She is steely enough, no doubt, for the proverbial 3 a.m. phone call. A former Mossad officer, she grew up as the daughter of parents who both fought with the right-wing Irgun underground. She entered politics as a member of the hard-line Likud party, and followed security hawk Ariel Sharon when he quit Likud to form Kadima.
Somehow her terrorist connections don't seem to bother the Zionist-controlled Boston Globe.
What has yet to be proven is her ability to tame the growling lions who lead Israel's political parties. In Wednesday's primary, she finished a bare 1 percent in front of her principal opponent, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.
Also see: Livni Survives Rigged Israeli Election
She now has six weeks to form a stable coalition government from among Israel's radically disparate parties, with each one seeking to blackmail her into granting it parochial concessions.
Jews, blackmail? No way!
If she fails to herd enough of them into a coalition, Israel will go to new elections that the right-wing Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu is favored to win. Netanyahu has said he will withdraw from the peace talks with the Palestinians and Syria.
See: Israel's Next Leader
Livni has a reputation for being unburdened by the corrupt practices that brought down Olmert. Her clean political persona accounts for her popularity with the public - a trump card she can use in bargaining with leaders of both the religious Shas Party and the dovish Labor Party.
As foreign minister, Livni has been the lead Israeli negotiator conducting wide-ranging, substantive talks on a two-state peace agreement with a Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qurei, more commonly known as Abu Ala. And as she tries to put together a coalition spanning parties with diverse priorities, Livni should stress her own pragmatic commitment to those vital talks.
Israel needs a leader with a mandate to pursue peace through negotiations with the Palestinians and Syria. Such a platform may offer the strongest justification for persuading would-be partners to form a durable coalition. Otherwise, new elections will be held early next year. If those elections result in canceled peace talks, Israel may confront greater threats than ever to its long-term security.
Livni is a new kind of Israeli leader, one who began as a hawkish believer in the illusion of a Greater Israel, but came to recognize that Israel can remain both democratic and a Jewish-majority state only if it ends the occupation and negotiates a two-state solution with the Palestinians. She deserves a chance to save Israel from the course it has been following.No one can do that.
And if that is the case, why is it that the Boston Globe promotes Israel's agenda at every turn? I'm supposed to take this editorial seriously?
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