Israel's former foreign minister Tzipi Livni returns to politics

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JERUSALEM - Former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (54 years) announced her candidacy on Tuesday in a January general election. Livni served as foreign minister from 2006 until 2009. She was also chief peace negotiator with the Palestinians at the time.

She became the head of Israel's largest opposition party, Kadima, in 2009, but lost her bid this year to remain party leader. Newsweek named Livni in 2011 as one of world's 150 most influential women.

Opinion polls predict Livni will win seven to nine of parliament's 120-seats, grabbing votes from left-of-centre factions and not generating enough support to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing bloc.

Next Golda Meir?

Livni, a corporate lawyer, was once touted as Israel's next Golda Meir -- the only woman who ever served as prime minister. As foreign minister from 2006 to 2009, during Ehud Olmert's premiership, she was appointed to the high-profile task of heading peace talks with the Palestinians.

But the negotiations failed, Olmert was forced to step down in a corruption scandal, and while Kadima won more votes than Likud in the ensuing 2009 parliamentary election, Netanyahu outmanoeuvred Livni to form a broad coalition government.

Her return to frontline politics will further fracture Israel's centre-left, with a slew of parties courting the same pool of voters and rejecting suggestions that they should merge to form a stronger, more unified front against Netanyahu.

Thronged by supporters and standing in front of a banner bearing the name of her new party, Livni spoke of hope, unity and dialogue. "I came to fight for peace, I came to fight for security," she said.

Since quitting Kadima and giving up her parliamentary seat eight months ago, Livni joined a leading Tel Aviv think tank. She said supporters had urged her to return to politics and that her decision "wasn't an easy one to make".