The splintered Center-Left will become even more divided at the beginning of next week when former foreign minister Tzipi Livni is expected to form a new party with allies from Kadima and new candidates who scored well in polls.
Livni's list will reportedly be called the “National Responsibility Party,” using the name that Livni suggested for Kadima when it was formed at former prime minister Ariel Sharon's Negev ranch in November 2005. The party will attempt to provide the “different kind of politics” Livni envisioned for Kadima before it became enveloped in the same internal corruption that plagued the Likud central committee.
To that end, politicians involved in legal troubles like former prime minister Ehud Olmert and former minister Haim Ramon will not be on the list. Olmert is expected to announce that he will not run in the January 22 election at a press conference on Sunday.
Instead the list will feature Maj.-gen. (res.) Shlomo Yanai, the respected former chairman of Teva Pharmaceuticals, who built up the company's annual earnings from $8.4 billion to $22 billion in five years. A former OC Southern Command, Yanai's experience dealing with the Gaza Strip could be a key asset for the party following Operation Pillar of Defense.
Read the full story