Martin Chulov, Middle East correspondent | August 02, 2008
ISRAELI Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's bid to replace outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has received an early boost with a poll showing she would lead the centre-right Kadima party to an election win over arch-rivals Likud.
The poll conducted for an Israeli newspaper showed the ambitious 49-year-old would be the only Kadima candidate who could roll hard-right Likud stalwart Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be aiming for a second term as Israeli leader when a general election is called some time late this year.
Mr Netanyahu has dominated media polling since January, on the back of Mr Olmert's ailing premiership and his hardline stance against Iran, as well as opposing peace talks with Syria and refusing to cede East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Mr Olmert's decision to resign as Prime Minister after the primary nominations for the Kadima leadership in September is seen as an invigorating tonic to the Israeli political scene. However, Palestinian leaders yesterday also decried it as a mortal blow to the peace process.
Several Palestinian leaders, among them chief negotiator with Israel Saeb Erekat and President Mahmoud Abbas said Mr Olmert no longer had a mandate to strike a deal with the Palestinian Authority. They also said that only Ms Livni among his mooted replacements had the political impetus and commitment to pick up the reins of the
peace process.
Before Mr Olmert's surprise announcement on Wednesday, Ms Livni had continued to lay down her credentials as a leader by revealing for the first time her past as a Mossad officer in the early 1980s.
"I served in Mossad from 1980 to 1984 and worked overseas in several postings with them," she said. "But when I got married, I quickly found service like that wasn't compatible with married life."
National security credentials are considered essential to holding high public office in Israel and Ms Livni's remarks follow strategic media leaks several months ago that briefly outlined her past as an intelligence officer.
The Weekend Australian has learned through independent sources that Ms Livni served mainly in Paris with a Mossad support unit, which took care of the organisation's assets and ran its safehouses.
"She was tasked with doing things like turning up to safe houses, turning the lights on and off, doing the dishes and generally making sure that the neighbours thought all was normal in the apartment next door," said a former intelligence official familiar with the Foreign Minister's past.
"She also played a support role in operations against Palestinians in Paris, but was never a trigger person."
Ms Livni is close to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and has reaffirmed in the past few days that she is keen to drive the peace process with the Palestinians if she is elected leader.
"We have made efforts this year to reach an agreement with the Palestinians and we will continue to do so," she said.
"I am here now as Israel's Foreign Minister and I can promise you that I also intend to represent Israel's interests in future."
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