Tzipi Livni

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Tzipi Livni, 2018

Tzipora "Tzipi" Malka Livni ( Hebrew צפורה (ציפי) לבני; * July 8, 1958 in Tel Aviv ; The first name is occasionally written Zipi , the last name is sometimes written Liwni ) is a former Israeli politician . From September 2008 to March 2012 she was chairman of the Kadima party, from January 2006 to March 2009 she was the foreign minister of her country. In 2013 Livni signed the coalition agreement with Likud-Beitenu and was Minister of Justice from March 2013 to December 2014. In February 2019, she announced her retirement from politics.

Life and political career

Livni is the daughter of Eitan Livni , a leading member of the underground organization Irgun Tzwai Le'umi (Etzel), who was born in Grodno ( Poland , now Belarus ), and who was himself a member of the Likud Party, and Sara Livni, née. Rosenberg, also an Etzel fighter. Tzipi Livni served as a lieutenant in the Israeli armed forces and worked for the Mossad foreign intelligence service from 1980 to 1984 . Livni graduated from the Law Faculty of the Bar Ilan University and has several years of professional experience as a lawyer specializing in public and commercial law .

Collaboration in the Mossad and first government offices

On July 29, 2008, Livni told Israeli military broadcaster , “I worked for the Mossad for four years. I have also attended advanced training seminars and have been on missions abroad. ”After her marriage, she quit work because, according to her own statement, she“ no longer wanted to lead this life ”. Livni did not want to reveal details about her missions. The media had already reported on her time at the Mossad.

Since she was elected a Likud member of the Knesset in 2000 , she has held various government offices. She was Minister for Regional Cooperation , Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Immigration . She is valued by both right-wing and left-wing Israelis and received the “Quality of Governance” award for 2004.

On January 10, 2005, she was appointed Minister of Justice . Livni supported the evacuation of the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2004 and was considered to be one of the central members of the “dove faction” within the Likud Party. She often acted as a mediator between the “doves” and “hawks” in the party and gained notoriety through her successful efforts to organize a majority for the withdrawal from Gaza . On November 12, 2005, she was the first member of the Israeli right to speak at the official commemorations on the occasion of the murder of Yitzhak Rabin . On November 20, 2005, Livni followed Ariel Sharon , who had resigned from Likud, and joined his new party, Kadima .

Foreign Minister

Tzipi Livni in conversation with Dick Cheney

When Foreign Minister Silvan Schalom resigned in January 2006, Livni was appointed Foreign Minister on January 18, 2006 as the second woman after Golda Meir . At the same time, she kept her posts as Minister of Justice and Minister for Immigration and Integration. When Ariel Sharon’s health deteriorated, it was speculated whether Livni would succeed him at the head of the Kadima, but others doubted whether she had sufficient experience. However, she quickly declared her support for Ehud Olmert as Kadima's party leader and as incumbent Prime Minister. In the early Knesset elections on March 28, Livni was third on the Kadima electoral list and thus had a seat in parliament.

Livni was the first cabinet member to differentiate attacks by Palestinian activists on Israeli soldiers from terrorist attacks on civilians . In an interview for American television on March 28, 2006, she said on Nightline :

"Someone who fights Israeli soldiers is an enemy and we will fight back, but I believe that does not fall under the definition of terrorism if the target is a soldier."

Livni was sworn in again as Foreign Minister on May 4, 2006 when the 31st Israeli Cabinet was inaugurated, at the same time became Deputy Prime Minister and gave up all other ministries. The office of Justice Minister initially went to Chaim Ramon , but on November 29, 2006 she again took over the Ministry of Justice (from Ehud Olmert) and held office until Daniel Friedmann was sworn in on February 7, 2007. She was replaced as Foreign Minister on March 31, 2009 .

In February 2006, Livni said at a conference in Austria regarding the stop of the contractually agreed transfer of customs and tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority or Hamas : "If they do not accept our existence, they cannot accept our checks either."

She welcomed UN resolution 1701 as "good for Israel".

As a former member of the War Cabinet during Operation Cast Lead , she was on an arrest warrant from a British court on charges brought against Gaza victims on alleged war crimes ; the warrant was withdrawn after it became known that she would not enter the UK. This led to resentment between London and Jerusalem . When Livni was in London in mid-2016, Scotland Yard invited her to a talk, which sparked protests from Israel.

Critic of Prime Minister Olmert

Tzipi Livni, 2008

When, at the end of April / beginning of May 2007, the Winograd Commission, convened by the Israeli government, accused Prime Minister Olmert of “serious failure” in the 2006 Lebanon war , because he had sent the troops into the war without adequate preparation and without considering other alternatives, it turned out Foreign Minister Livni as the most popular and most influential critic from the ranks of the Kadima demonstratively against Olmert's policies. She emphasized that she was only concerned with the issue.

In April 2008, Livni said that Israel would never cross its “red lines” in talks on the Middle East conflict . On September 17, 2008 she was elected party leader of the Kadima in a ballot to succeed Olmert. With 43.1 percent of the votes cast, she only narrowly prevailed against the hardliner Transport Minister Schaul Mofas , although opinion polls had forecast a ten percent lead.

After Olmert's resignation on September 22, 2008, President Shimon Peres asked Livni to form a government. On October 13, 2008, she achieved her first success with the agreement on a coalition agreement with the labor party Avoda . To continue the coalition, Livni had to make concessions to Defense Minister Ehud Barak ; for example, the Avoda chairman was given a say in the peace talks with Syria . In order to secure the parliamentary majority, Livni would have needed the support of smaller parties in addition to the Avoda.

Tzipi Livni, 2009

On October 26, it declared the formation of a government to have failed, whereupon Peres called a new election, which took place on February 10, 2009 . In the new elections, she ran as the top candidate for Kadima. The Kadima was the strongest force ahead of the Likud with 28 out of 120 seats . However, its top candidate Benjamin Netanyahu managed to form a government, so that the Kadima had to go into the opposition. For the time being, Livni remained an opposition leader, but in March 2012 she was defeated by her challenger Schaul Mofas in the election of the party chairman .

Return to politics

In November 2012 Livni called for the founding of the center-left Ha-Tnu'a (The Movement), with which she ran for the 2013 Knesset election. Hatnua got 4.99% and six seats. Since March 2013, she has been a member of the government under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu as Justice Minister. After a government crisis, she was removed from office on December 2, 2014 by Prime Minister Netanyahu, who accused her of publicly criticizing the government. Livni then merged her Ha-Tnu'a party with the Awoda labor party in mid-December 2014 to form the Zionist Union electoral list , which in the meantime was roughly on a par with the right-wing nationalist camp of Netanyahu's Likud . The goal of taking over government in the early elections in March 2015 did not succeed. Livni, who was on the Union's second list position, was to rotate with the Prime Minister after two years under Avoda chairman Yitzchak Herzog ( Israeli model ).

Withdrawal from politics

On February 18, 2019, Livni declared that she wanted to withdraw from politics. As a reason, she gave the poor performance of her party Ha-Tnu'a in the primary polls for the 2019 Knesset election . Livni warned of the end of democracy in Israel if Prime Minister Netanyahu was able to continue his previous policy.

Private life

Livni lives in Tel Aviv. The hobby drummer is married and has two children. She has been a committed animal rights activist and vegetarian since early youth .

literature

Web links

Commons : Tzipi Livni  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yuval Karni, Omri Efraim: Coalition deal: Livni to serve as justice minister; head peace talks. Nearly month after elections, PM finalizes first coalition deal; Hatnua leader to get justice portfolio, be in charge of peace talks with Palestinians. In: y net news.com. February 19, 2013, accessed May 7, 2015 .
  2. ^ Israel celebrates Irgun hotel bombers The Daily Telegraph, July 21, 2006
  3. ^ A b c Tzipi Livni: The cool clean woman from the Mossad Die Presse, September 16, 2008
  4. ↑ Golda Meir's granddaughter Cicero, June 2006
  5. ↑ Israel's Foreign Minister Livni: "I was a Mossad agent" . The press, July 29, 2008
  6. ↑ Livni was a Mossad agent . ( Memento from August 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 29, 2008
  7. ^ Q&A: Tzipi Livni, Israeli Foreign Minister . The Washington Post, January 22, 2006
  8. ↑ A practical test for Golda Meir's heiress . Spiegel Online , July 20, 2006
  9. ^ Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni visits Vienna: "Hamas must change". News Networld Internet Service, March 1, 2006, accessed November 18, 2012 .
  10. ↑ Mideast battles rage ahead of cease-fire China Daily, August 14, 2006
  11. ^ Ian Black, Ian Cobain: British court issued Gaza arrest warrant for former Israeli minister Tzipi Livni The Guardian December 14, 2009.
  12. ^ According to a British arrest warrant. Livni: "The war was necessary" FAZ December 15, 2009.
  13. ↑ Barak Ravid: In Unprecedented Move, British Police Summoned Tzipi Livni Over Suspected Gaza War Crimes. In: Haaretz , July 3, 2016 (English).
  14. ↑ Olmert under pressure for 'haphazardly waging war' ( Memento of May 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Financial Times Deutschland, April 30, 2007
  15. ↑ Livni suggests Prime Minister Olmert's resignation (tagesschau.de archive) Tagesschau, May 2, 2007
  16. ↑ Livni draws the line n-tv, April 7th 2008
  17. ^ Kadima and Labor Party agree coalition agreement ( Memento from December 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 13, 2008
  18. ^ Elections in Israel - February 2009 Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  19. ^ Sabine Brandes: Journey to Jerusalem. Zipi Livni founds a Jewish General party online, November 29, 2012
  20. ↑ Final official results of the Elections for the Nineteenth Knesset. National-scale results. Retrieved May 7, 2015 .
  21. ↑ Raoul Wootliff, TOI staff: Leaving politics, Livni warns this election may be load gasp of democracy. Retrieved February 18, 2019 (American English).
  22. ↑ New beginning in Israel with Livni . ( Memento from September 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Rheinische Post , September 19, 2008
predecessor Office successor
?

Meir Schitrit

Jaakov Neeman 		Israeli Justice Minister
December 5, 2004 to January 10, 2005 (official)
January 10, 2005 to May 6, 2006
November 29, 2006 to February 7, 2007
March 18, 2013 to December 2, 2014
Chaim Ramon
Daniel Friedmann

Ajelet Schaked
predecessor Office successor
Shimon Peres Minister for Regional Cooperation
March 7, 2001 to August 29, 2001 		Roni Milo
predecessor Office successor
Shalom Simhon Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development
December 17, 2002 to February 28, 2003 		Israel Katz
predecessor Office successor
Ariel Sharon Minister for Immigration
February 28, 2003 to May 4, 2006 		Ze'ev Boim
predecessor Office successor
? Minister for Integration
January 18, 2006 to May 4, 2006 		?
personal data
SURNAME Livni, Tzipi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Liwni, Tzipi; Livni, Tzipora Malka; Livni, Zipi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Tel Aviv