Thursday, May 03, 2007

Who is Tzipi Livni?

Olmert is history. Everyone knows that. They are in the street and why would anyone want to keep him anyway? Wonder who is on deck? Have a read. You never know about these things. She is a lot better looking than olda Golda. Sort of sexy and tough don't you think?

Former spy fighting to step into the front line
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor The Independent

"Do you ever see male hormones raging around you?", Israel's Foreign Minister was asked a few months ago. Rather than fudge the answer, she responded frankly: "Sometimes there are guy issues." But she didn't stop there. When the interviewer from Haaretz pressed her to find out whether there had been "a guy problem" in the war on Lebanon, Tzipi Livni replied: "Not only in the war. In all kinds of discussions, I hear arguments between generals and admirals and such and I say, 'Guys, stop it'."

It is easy to see why Ms Livni is Israel's most popular politician, and frequently touted as a likely successor - if not the likeliest - to the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. The 48-year-old former Mossad spy is a strong woman surrounded by strong men and does not hesitate to speak her mind. She also likes the company of strong women, as exemplified by her working relationship with Condoleezza Rice, which has clearly burgeoned into a friendship during the American Secretary of State's almost monthly visits to the region.

Ms Livni was raised in a household of Zionists. Her Polish-born father, Eitan, was the head of operations of the Jewish military organisation Irgun when it blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946, killing 28 Britons, 41 Arabs, 17 Jews and five others. The subsequent wave of terror attacks that he led outraged British public opinion, leading the government to abandon the Palestinian Mandate and turn the problem over to the UN, with disastrous consequences for the Palestinians.

"My family is part of the founding history of Israel," she is proud to say. Her father's gravestone bears the inscription: "Here lies the head of operations of the Irgun." The stone also bears a carved map of Greater Israel extending to the opposite side of the Jordan river.

Yet Ms Livni has made a considerable political journey from her early support for a Greater Israel to realisation that the country cannot remain a democracy while occupying Palestinian lands and ruling over a population that despises it.

To the extent that her views are known, she now supports a two-state solution and talks about the need to strengthen the moderate Palestinian leadership, while expressing concern about the conflict with the Palestinians becoming a "religious" war.

Ms Livni joined Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, when she was 22 years old. During her classified time with Mossad, Israeli agents were involved in a failed assassination attempt on the Black September terror group leader, Abu Daoud. In 1981, her first year as a foreign spy, Mossad arranged the destruction of the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq being constructed by Saddam Hussein.

Coming from a Likud family - her father served three terms as an MP - it was natural for her to choose the party as she embarked on a political career, and she was elected to the Knesset in 1999 after working as a lawyer.

Rather than admit to an ideological shift, she maintains that she has long been a centrist - which prompted her to jump ship to the moderate Kadima party when it was formed in 2005 by Ariel Sharon, her hawkish mentor.

Despite her prominence in the public eye, however, Ms Livni has managed to remain a private person. She is married, with two sons - a 19-year-old doing his military service, and a 17-year-old schoolboy. But nothing is known about her husband.

If Ms Livni does manage to succeed Mr Olmert, she would be following in the footsteps of Golda Meir, the only woman to have been Israeli foreign minister who went on to become prime minister. But she would also have something in common with another political heavyweight - the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, the only other leader to be elected after serving his country as a spy.

33 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Another Israeli Minister that can trace their political and genetic lineage to the Terror bombing of the King David Hotel.

    Another form of nepotism?

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  3. Yeah, but this one looks like a Jewish version of that French Gal!

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  4. I take it all back, Cutler:
    Rudy has seen less of the underworld than I did growing up in a town of 3,000!
    ---
    "So far, 10 people have reported receiving minor injuries, including seven journalists, The Los Angeles Times reported. Some journalists say they may sue the city.
    On a CBS News program this morning, William J. Bratton, the head of the department, called the incident “one of the more disturbing and troubling in my 37-year career
    "
    ---
    I saw more Police Brutality than that in front of my Dad's Drugstore!

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  5. None of them (including the reporters) had learned what
    "Move Back"
    means in English.

    Poor Babies, this is bigger than panties and Gitmo combined.
    Give Fox the Keys to Calif. Arnie!

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  6. Or whatever the name of the next corrupt jerk is.

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  7. Hamas Threat Fatigue Peaks

    RECOMMENDATION: American and European leaders should advise Hamas to have at it, in language as equally plain and undiplomatic as their own chosen discourse. They should also be advised in no uncertain terms that they will then live with the unrestrained consequences of their blackmail and barbarism. Their actions, should they enact them as threatened, will not be met with the standard calls from American and European leadership for restraint and talks.

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  8. What Pious Mormons Read:

    Everything about the book is bad. Just a few sentences into the first page, you're confronted by this sentence: "Terl could not have produced a more profound effect had he thrown a meat-girl naked into the middle of the room." (A clothed meat-girl apparently gets a big yawn.) Hubbard's soundtrack for the book, when played, either attracts mice or repels dogs, or both. The movie, which starred John Travolta, is what therapists show to the producers of Ishtar and Glitter to help them feel good.

    And he may have even given reporters a new way to ask the question, inspired by Char's request of Terl in Battlefield Earth:
    "What in the name of diseased crap are you reading?"

    SLATE

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  9. Please Dear G_d,
    Say it Ain't So:
    "A local cameraman was forced to his knees during the sweep.
    (Photo: Telemundo via AP
    "

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  10. DR..those were Freedom Fighters

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  11. Tzipi..Born in Tel Aviv, 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.

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  12. "If you have seen this- you must call and email the mayor, police chief, and the governor. The police work for citizens- they are not allowed to beat, shoot, or gas peaceful demonstrators. This is a racist attack- and the latino officers involved should be ashamed of themselves. This entire unit needs to be disbanded, the offendors jailed for assault (that is what it is, right?). Our society does not permit anyone, not even police, from using violence in any way, except self defense, and these officers were not defending themselves from anything but bullhorns. What Sissies!!!!!"
    ---
    Heh, heh:
    It's a Mormon!
    6717 N 2300 W, Cedar City, UT home for sale - Yahoo!

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  13. I was cheating, my wife was on the phone talking about me, and she said:
    "It's a Moron"
    And I thot she said...

    Like mom said:
    "Cheaters never prosper."

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  14. Miss Bodo and date..a hottie she is too.

    Bodo babe

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  15. Whoever she is, she doesn't look like she'd have any hesitation in gettin' ya by the balls.

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  17. Isus Maria, you fellows need to better prescription eye wear.

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  18. Maybe the camera likes her. I always reserve the right to change my mind at the last critical moment. Sometimes I miss the cut-off point. I blame that on the beer.

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  19. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2003/2/Limor%20Livnat

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  20. My bet the Israeli pubic will like her just as much as the camera.

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  21. ..need to ^get better prescription..

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  22. I'm feeling fresher than an Irish spring wit zis posts! Time fo nap.

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  23. Can I get a Gold Cap on my Cornea, Doc?

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  24. Tzipi Livni is a Kadima Party dove, just like Olmert. She was 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."

    Which explains why U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland stated that "Hizbullah must stop this cowardly blending... among women and children," and that "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men." (!!!!!)

    As soon as the Hesbos restock their missile supply you'll see a repeat of the 2006 War.
    -----------------------
    Bodoexpress: latitude 67°17'N

    47.4 N
    122.3 W

    Plus or minus a fudge factor to keep the smart bombs away.

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  25. Doug,

    Gold Cap?! You decadent American! What's wrong with a Lead Cap?

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  26. Livnat is 10 years older, 100 years wiser, and looks 20 years younger than Livni dressed in her best schmatas.

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