Livni, the ultimate non-politician, is on her way up.
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANTzipi Livni headshot 224.88(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimksi )
Sometimes the person of the year is an individual who displayed heroism, bravery, courage and leadership over the past 12 months.
And sometimes that person just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
New Kadima leader Tzipi Livni falls into the latter category. She may indeed be courageous or brave, a leader and perhaps even a hero. The upcoming year will undoubtedly present her with enough opportunities to prove to the people of Israel and to the world that she has such noble qualities, especially if she successfully forms a government and becomes prime minister at such a fateful time in the country's history.
But so far, all we know about her luster is that she was lucky enough to make the right moves and avoid the wrong ones to find herself at the gateway to the Prime Minister's Office.
That accomplishment, even if due more to luck than skill and strength of character, is nonetheless impressive.
Livni likes to talk about how she is not your standard politician. She gained more of a tolerance for handshaking, backslapping and even smiling over the course of her campaign, but she still looks much more comfortable in an air-conditioned room full of foreign ministers than a sweat-filled branch of Kadima.
Yet if Livni, the ultimate non-politician, is on her way up, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the ultimate politician, is on the way down, who is the better politician?
"My way has been proven effective," she told The Jerusalem Post in an interview a week before the primary. "I've been in politics less than a decade, and I'm already a realistic candidate for prime minister."
That contrast with Olmert is what ultimately allowed her to rise to the top over other MKs no less talented, but certainly not as lucky.
She presented a Mrs. Clean image exactly when Kadima members were looking for the anti-Olmert.
She overcame her lack of security experience because the election happened to be held at a rare time when corruption was seen as a greater threat than war.
On diplomatic issues, Livni and Olmert are similar. They both came from Revisionist families and both of their fathers were right-wing members of Knesset. Both underwent political transformations from hawks into doves.
If Livni, her husband Naftali Spitzer and her sons, Omri and Yuval, move to the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem, chances are that the policies would not change very much.
And just like Mordecai said to Queen Esther, "Who knows whether it was just for such a time that you attained this royal position?" In other words, if Livni proves to have the heroism, bravery, courage and leadership of Esther, being in the right place at the right time could be not only the key to success for her but also for the State of Israel.
Livni's challenges
New Kadima leader Tzipi Livni already overcame a significant challenge when she managed to defeat Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz by a small margin in last Wednesday's party primary.
But many greater challenges still lie ahead.
When Livni was declared the winner of the race at 6 a.m. last Thursday, she would have loved it if she could have gone straight from her North Tel Aviv home to the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem and started governing.
That could have been possible had Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to declare himself incapable of governing and suspended himself. Livni, as Olmert's vice prime minister, could have then taken over without having to endure the stress of the political horse-trading involved in forming a new government.
But no one expected Olmert to be magnanimous to a successor he despises, nor was he expected to voluntarily leave a job that he obviously likes much more than he likes her. Olmert's resignation merely creates a caretaker government under his leadership that will only end if Livni forms a new coalition.
The current challenge for Livni is to massage enough egos to at least keep the present coalition intact and enable her to become prime minister. She needs that to go into the next general election on an even keel with the former prime ministers who head the Likud and Labor, Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak.
Livni officially has until November to build a new government, but she hopes to accomplish that task by the time the Knesset returns from recess on October 27 and ideally much sooner.
It would already be a significant accomplishment if she can form a government at all. It would be much more impressive if she could achieve that goal while maintaining her squeaky-clean image, which took a hit from the Mofaz campaign's allegations of wrongdoing during the primary.
If Livni does not succeed in forming a government, she will face the challenge of another election, this time as an underdog against Netanyahu.
If she does build a coalition and become prime minister, the challenges will be tenfold: Dealing with a soon-to-be-nuclear Iran, an enigmatic Syria, a potential Palestinian civil war, etc., etc.
But those are the challenges that Livni wanted to be in charge of all along.
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