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Viewing cable 06TELAVIV282, NEW FOREIGN MINISTER TZIPI LIVNI

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06TELAVIV282 2006-01-20 05:40 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Tel Aviv
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 000282 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PINR IS ELECTIONS GOI INTERNAL
SUBJECT: NEW FOREIGN MINISTER TZIPI LIVNI 
 
1.  Summary:  Alternate Prime Minister Ehud Olmert named 
Kadima MK Tzipi Livni, who continues to hold the Justice and 
Immigration portfolios, to head the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs upon the departure of Likud Minister Silvan Shalom. 
This decision, which the cabinet approved on January 18 
(septel), suggests that Livni has cemented her status as a 
rising star within the Kadima party.  End Summary. 
 
-------------------- 
LAWYER, SOLDIER, SPY 
-------------------- 
 
2.  At 47, Livni, whose background includes law studies and 
a stint with the Mossad, also boasts serious ministerial 
experience at the helm of the Ministry of Justice and 
Immigration.  The youngest of three children, Livni was born 
and raised in Tel Aviv.  Her father, Eitan Livni, had been 
the operations chief of the pre-state Jewish underground 
Irgun Zvai Leumi [IZL].  Tzipi Livni rose to the rank of 
lieutenant in the IDF and, upon her discharge, took up law 
studies at Bar Ilan University, where former classmate and 
eventual law partner Avi Drexler recalls that her "straight 
thinking" made her stand out.  Friends remember her as a 
flamboyant red-head "always surrounded by a group of highly- 
spirited young people," so it was a surprise to many to 
discover years later that at least one year of her studies 
was spent abroad as an employee of the Mossad, which 
employed her from 1980-84 according to her official resume. 
 
3.  In 1983, Livni returned to Bar Ilan University and 
completed her legal studies before embarking on a legal 
internship with the law practice of Attorney Nachum 
Feinberg, where her systematic approach and reliability is 
still lauded.  Former left-wing member of Knesset Me'ir Pail 
remembers debating Livni's father, a Likud MK in the 1984 
election campaign, and finding himself engaged in a 
memorable ideological debate with his debating rival's 
daughter, Tzipi Livni, who couldn't restrain herself from 
joining in.  Pa'il says he liked her argumentation and 
eloquence and afterwards he told her "Why is your father 
hiding you? You could be one hell of a politician...." 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
LIVNI LAUNCHED A SECOND CAREER IN POLITICS IN 1995 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
4.  Tzipi Livni's response to Pa'il's rhetorical question 
would wait for more than a decade.  In the interim she and a 
friend from student days set up their own law firm and Livni 
married Naftali Spitzer, an accountant with whom she has two 
sons.  Her decision to enter politics came in the fall of 
1995, only a few weeks before the assassination of PM 
Yitzchak Rabin at the height of the Oslo accords euphoria. 
Livni contested a place on the Likud list, coming in at 
number 36, which proved too low for entry into the Knesset, 
but she was swiftly appointed by then-PM Netanyahu to head 
the Companies Authority, spearheading his plans for 
privatization of government owned companies.  Israel's 
current Ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, at that time 
head of the Union of Chambers of Commerce, recalls Livni as 
someone who knew how to make effective decisions.  Gad 
Yaakobi, a former chairman of the Israel Electric Company, 
says he was impressed that she argued for a slowdown in the 
privatization process, against Netanyahu's view, thus 
proving that she was an independent thinker. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
LIKUD MK IN 1999, LIVNI EMERGES AS A KEY SHARON LOYALIST 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
5.  Contesting the Likud primaries in 1999, Livni came in at 
number 18, barely squeezing into the Knesset where Likud was 
in opposition after its defeat by Barak's "One Israel."  As 
an unknown MK, she made it her priority to travel the length 
and breadth of Israel familiarizing herself with the country 
and the people.  When, in 2001, Likud fought its way back 
into government, Livni demanded the Regional Development 
Ministry that had been created by former PM Ehud Barak for 
Shimon Peres.  Livni got her wish and the post gave her new 
and valuable exposure to key issues in the Israeli- 
Palestinian context.  She served as minister in this short- 
lived ministry from March-August 2001 then as minister of 
agriculture and rural development from December 2002 through 
February 2003.  When PM Sharon formed his second government 
in February 2003, Livni became minister of Immigrant 
Absorption. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
MULTIPLE MINISTRIES UNDER SUCCESSIVE SHARON GOVERNMENTS 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
6.  Ariel Sharon did not know Tzipi Livni when she first 
entered the Knesset in 1999, but her 18 months in 
parliamentary opposition brought her to the Prime Minister's 
attention.  Colleagues in the Likud faction say they noticed 
that when Livni spoke at faction meetings, Sharon listened. 
Interviewed by Ma'ariv newspaper, a senior Likud official 
described the relationship between Livni and Sharon as "a 
special bond" created by loyalty, adding that in the past 
four years, he could not recall a single instance in which 
Livni had spoken out against Sharon.  Her loyalty was 
particularly evident during the elaboration of Sharon's 
disengagement plan when Livni was tasked with arbitration 
between the government and settlers who were to be 
evacuated.  She earned the respect of settlers and their 
rabbis in an arduous and often combative process to reach a 
workable compromise.  That loyalty was rewarded with the 
post of justice minister in January 2005. 
 
7.  Officials at the Justice Ministry are quoted by media 
sources as saying Livni has tackled her mission with energy 
and unprecedented independence, standing firm against the 
highest level of the judiciary on such controversial issues 
as the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court.  But in 
her earlier post, as minister of housing and construction 
from August 2004 until January 2005, she failed to respond 
to inquiries into ministry investments in unauthorized 
outposts in the West Bank.  In the words of Talia Sasson, 
who chaired the commission established by the office of 
Prime Minister Sharon to look into the issue of outposts, 
"It was only by the end of January 2005 that the Ministry of 
Construction & Housing responded to my request for data 
concerning investments by the ministry in unauthorized 
outposts over the last four years.  This was only after 
correspondence starting September 2004, oral and written 
requests, reminders, an appeal to Minister Ms. Livni, her 
personal interference and demand to release the material - 
all of which was in vain." 
 
--------------------------------------- 
MORE OUTSPOKEN ON OUTPOSTS UNDER OLMERT 
--------------------------------------- 
 
8.  Within the transitional government of Alternate PM 
Olmert, Livni has begun to speak out more forcefully on 
sensitive political and security issues such as outposts. 
Echoing Olmert's January 18 call on Israeli defense and 
security forces to evacuate illegal outposts (septel), Livni 
stated:  "A battle is taking place between the government 
and the settlers on the issue of who is sovereign in Judea 
and Samaria.  It is an ideological controversy on the right 
of the state and its laws, an attempt is being made here to 
delegitimize the state and the government." 
 
---------------------------------- 
OLMERT'S PICK FOR FOREIGN MINISTER 
---------------------------------- 
 
9.  Among the assets that Livni bestows upon a Kadima-led 
transitional government are youth, pragmatism, a political 
lineage, and impeccable credentials.  Livni combines a 
liberal image and understanding of human rights with a 
conservative insistence on the Jewish character of the 
state.  Her support for the roadmap and territorial 
compromise is not ideological, but pragmatically driven by a 
commitment to preserving the Jewish character of Israel. 
Her loyalty to Sharon is matched by her dedication to her 
work and the ambition to succeed.  Considered too young to 
be Sharon's number two in Kadima -- that position has fallen 
to Alternate PM Olmert -- Livni had been mentioned as a 
possible candidate for a number of key ministerial 
portfolios recently vacated by departing Likud ministers. 
On January 15, Olmert announced that Livni was his pick to 
succeed Silvan Shalom as Foreign Minister.  Olmert's Kadima- 
led cabinet approved this decision on January 18, and the 
MFA en masse welcomed her to work that day. 
 
---------------- 
PERSONAL DETAILS 
---------------- 
 
10.  Livni is a vegetarian and keeps kosher, according to 
government protocol contacts.  A recent in-depth media 
profile in Ma'ariv newspaper indicates that while she is a 
hard worker, she also enjoys singing and dancing.  Her 
spoken English is impeccable, and she has studied in France.