Tzipi Livni Biography

Tzipi Livni was born Tzipora Malka Livni in Tel Aviv on 7 july 1958. She comes from jewish activist stock,being the daughter of Irgun members Eitan Livni
and Sara Rosenberg. She is famously a former Mossad agent although her exact role has been shrouded in mystery for political reasons. She attained the

rank of lieutenant in the IDF. After leaving Mossad she graduated from Bar Ilan University with a degree in Law. She is married with two kids.
Her political career took off when she made the choice to leave the right wing Likud party in the mass exodus initiated by the hawkish Ariel Sharon to form

the Kadima party. When Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke, Ehud olmert took over the reigns. However following a disastrous incursion into lebanon in 2006 and what was widely seen as a military miscalculation by Olmert, there were calls for him to stand down as Pime Minister. Olmert stubbornly held on until he was so mired in bribery allegations from his time as mayor of Jerusalem that he was seen as a sitting duck. From within Kadima, Livni was the first to wield the proverbial knife by speaking up against Olmert. She went on to win the party's nomination as leader, while Olmert took on an interim leadership role. Her inability to form a government has meant that she has had to call elections in february. She was resolved not to be held hostage by the ultra orthodox

religious parties whose demands she could not live with. With Likud's ,Binyamin Netanyahu surging in the polls, Livni, flanked by Labour's Barak and Olmert unleashed a vicious assault on the Gaza Strip. The fallout from this assault may well determine who becomes the next PM of Israel. For now Tzipi Livni remains Israel's Foreign Minister. Her previous roles in government have included,Minister of Justice,Minister of Regional Cooperation, Minister of Agriculture & Rural Development, Minister without Portfolio, Minister of Immigrant Absorption, Minister of Housing & Construction. Were she to win the elections on february 10 2009, she would be Israel's second female PM after the formidable Golda Meir.