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Former Kadima head Livni mulls return to politics

23 October 2012 00:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Former Kadima chief Tzipi Livni is mulling her return to politics towards the Jan. 22 elections next year and will announce her decision in upcoming days, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The sources said that Livni has been holding meetings recently with various public figures, PR specialists and polling advisers, as well as other key figures, and is contemplating her return to the political sphere.

They also added that Livni, who served as Israel’s foreign minister in the previous decade, would focus in her agenda renewing the stalled peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, which came to a halt in 2009 because of the construction in the Jewish settlements.

Another Monday report published on the Walla news website reveals that Livni met Monday morning with the chairman of the national workers’ union organization, Ofer Eini, a close ally of Labor party leader, Shelly Yachimovich.

Recent polls have shown that by joining forces, Livni and Yachimovich can substantially increase the center-left bloc in the Knesset (parliament).

However, Eini, while confirming he met with her, denied their meeting revolved around her possible move to the Labor party, and said it was an ordinary meeting in a series of meetings held by the two individuals.

Livni headed the Kadima party during the 2009 elections and garnered 28 parliament seats to her party, a seat more than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

However, since the right-wing bloc was stronger, Netanyahu was the only one who succeeded in establishing a coalition.

After the elections, Livni lost her seat as chairman of Kadima to rival Shaul Mofaz and decided to retire from politics for the time being.

Sources close to Livni told Ha’aretz that according to inside polls, if she forms a new centrist party, she could attain up to 16 seats in the next Knesset.

They added that "at present, she is examining the possibility of leading a new centrist party but doesn’t reject out of hand the possibility of later joining Yair Lapid or Shelly Yachimovich, if it might lead to a bloc that would stymie Netanyahu."