Region | Palestinian Territories
Livni and Mofaz are top contenders for PM's office
Bitter rivals agree on most issues ahead of Wednesday's voting.
- By Carolynne Wheeler, The Telegraph Group Limited, London, 2008
- Published: 21:05 September 14, 2008
Tel Aviv: On Wednesday, Kadima members will vote to replace Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Olmert had announced on June 30 he would step down after a new leader was chosen in order to battle a wave of corruption allegations.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former defence minister Shaul Mofaz are the main contenders and both of them tow hard-line policies in the region.
Livni and Olmert are bitter rivals personally, but politically see eye to eye on most fronts. On Syria, however, Livni's policy is a clear departure.
Recent polls show Livni leading Mofaz by more than 15 points, but experts caution that such surveys may be unreliable, given the relatively small size of the party and the fact that it has never held such a leadership vote.
Livni plans to end fledgling peace talks with Syria unless it cuts its ties with Iran and the Hezbollah group.
During a rare interview with the Al Arabiya television network last week, Livni said she had "no need to meet with Syrian representatives" as long as the country continued to allow weapons smuggling to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
She has pledged to continue talks with Palestinian leaders, but cautions that rushing on could lead to a breakdown and more violence.
She has also promised that Israel will not hesitate to launch a military strike on Iran if sanctions fail to curb its nuclear programme.
Mofaz has cast himself as the guardian of Israel's security and questions whether Livni is ready for 3am telephone calls, requiring quick defence decisions.
Mofaz hails from Tehran, where he was born on November 4, 1948 and lived until emigrating to Israel in 1957.
After joining the army ahead of the 1967 Six Day War, Mofaz climbed the ranks, until being appointed chief of staff in 1998 by then prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the current head of the right-wing Likud party.
Decades of occupation
Two years later, Mofaz was tasked by the then Labour premier, Ehud Barak, with pulling Israeli forces out of south Lebanon after two decades of occupation.
But he soon underlined his hardline credentials in 2000 with his outspoken attacks on the Palestinian National Authority, which he branded a "terrorist entity" in March 2001.
It was Mofaz who led the invasion of the West Bank that spring and laid siege to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in his West Bank compound.
In June, he sparked a political firestorm in Israel when he told a newspaper that if Iran continued its nuclear programme, Israel would attack it.
Like Livni, Mofaz insists he is committed to making peace with the Palestinians, although he recently referred to the peace initiatives as a "waste of time."
- With inputs from agencies
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