Executive, journalist, cop join Kadima

Kadima plays catch-up to Likud in battle over well-known figures for the parties' Knesset lists.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Galia Albin 88 (photo credit: )
Galia Albin 88
(photo credit: )
Kadima played catch-up to the Likud on Tuesday in the battle over well-known figures for the parties' Knesset lists, drafting a top businesswoman, a Russian-language journalist and a police chief. The new Kadima politicians will compete in the December 16 party primary. Kadima officials said more well-known figures would be revealed in upcoming days, joining recent additions like Jewish Agency chairman Ze'ev Bielski, UJC Israel director-general Nachman Shai and Israel Beiteinu MK Yisrael Hasson. The highest-profile figure Kadima brought in on Tuesday was Galia Albin - a businesswoman, philanthropist and activist for women's rights, peacemaking and advancing the welfare of children. According to a recent profile on the Israel 21C Web site, Albin holds a slew of titles and positions in both public and private sectors here and abroad. She serves as company director of at least 10 publicly held Israeli/international giants, including Marks & Spencer Israel, United Steel Mills and the Koor Industries Group. Albin also chairs the Business Forum Women's advisory to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the National Council for the Child, and the Center for Economic Development among Jewish & Arab Women, and serves as director of the Israel Women's Network. She holds four degrees - two in psychology, one in law and another in acting - has produced and executive-produced three films, owned the Globes and Monitin business publications and at one point held the Israel franchise rights to Penthouse magazine. Albin will be joined in Kadima by Aryeh Bibi, a former Jerusalem police chief, chairman of the Anti-Drug Authority and interim mayor of Lod. Bibi met with Kadima leader Tzipi Livni on Tuesday and told her that he had chosen Kadima because of its platform on clean governance. "I see myself joining a party that represents pure ethics and clean hands," Bibi said. "The ideology of the party and the integrity of its leadership persuaded me to take part in its political activity," he said. Livni said she was sure Bibi's experience in internal security and socioeconomic issues would contribute to the party and the public as a whole. The least-known new Kadima candidate among Hebrew-speaking Israelis is Nina Absadza, the political analyst of the Vesti newspaper, whom a Kadima spokesman described as "the Nahum Barnea of the Russian-language media." Livni said her addition reflected a renewed commitment by Kadima to Russian immigrants, who felt slighted during Olmert's tenure.