Tzipi Livni is Either a Fool or Completely Inconsistent

Tzipi Livni is either a fool or just completely inconsistent. People say she is emotionally unstable. It might be true.

For four years she insisted that her party - then the largest in the Knesset - sit in the opposition rather than provide a fig leaf for Netanyahu's intransigence re the Palestinians  In the last election, she raised reaching an agreement with the P.A. as the most important item on her party's agenda; its raison d'etre, in fact.

Now she had decided to join Netanyahu's new coalition  on the promise that she will be allowed to lead negotiations with the P.A.: lead negotiations - but, pointedly, not reach a deal without cabinet approval, a cabinet whose agenda Netanyahu will control, and which will be packed with minsters even more intransigent than Netanyahu. She will barely be a fig leaf in the new coalition.

As Zehava Galon - leader of Meretz -  said:

"Livni's entrance into the Netanyahu government is a slap in the face of Center-Left voters, who gave their voices to Livni thinking that she would advance the peace process, and who today discover that their voices were stolen and handed off to the Right. Livni took the voice of the Left in 2009 and did not form the government, and in 2013 ruined the possibility of forming a Center-Left government. 

Talk of peace negotiations are empty election slogans... Livni is joining a Netanyahu government that might start a peace process, but won't make peace.

See full story in the Jerusalem Post.

Noam Shezeif,  at 972, covers the same story. Inter-alia he explains why this deal is good for Netanyahu, and reiterates why Livni is completely inconsistent.

From Netanyahu’s point of view, Livni’s support outweighs her relatively small party. In the last elections, the prime minister lost both Ehud Barak (retired from politics) and Dan Meridor (demoted in the Likud primaries), leaving him without an acceptable liaison to the international community, most notably, the United States. Livni is popular enough with the U.S. administration, not to mention other dovish institutions – she was one of the stars of the Saban forum – so she will perfectly fit the position of unofficial foreign minister. 

Interestingly enough, while at the Saban forum Livni privately warned Americans she met against the so-called centrists who would rush to serve as Natanyahu’s fig leaf after the elections; but politics, like pornography, is a question of geography, and things you understand as the leader of a 28-seat opposition party appear different when you have only five Knesset members behind you.

Read the full article at 972mag.