Livni, the Sunday Times and the timing of the expose!

Livni's Role In The Mossad Exposed! Why Now?

The Sunday Times expose about Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's past as a field operative of the Mossad in Europe in the 1980s should not raise any eyebrows. Nor is the timing of the publication. In a country like Israel, where the security or military background of any political runner becomes very relevant ahead of any elections, the expose was timely though it did not give much detail on the kind of activities or actions Livni did while serving in Europe.

When incumbent president of Israel, Shimon Peres, ran in previous elections, many in Israel tried to discredit him because he was not a "uniform man." However, the leader, mocked by many in Israel as the one who was born to lose, emerged in the Israeli perception as the godfather of Israel's nuclear power. Peres, as director general of the Israeli defense ministry in the 50s, worked out the secret deal with France according to which Israel would join the French and the British in their attack on Egypt in 1956 in return for French nuclear technology. The deal went ahead in extreme secrecy until US spy satellites took shots of a domed building in Dimona, which Israel described at the time as a textile factory.

Livni, for this matter, does not differ from any other Israeli politician. They all have had their share of serving in the army or any other security apparatus. The system in Israel requires such a role and the political system seems to have been based on how good you are in the field. "How good in the field you are" may sound euphemism to how many Arabs or Palestinians you managed to kill, wound or arrest. But this is the type of role Israeli military have. For the same reason, and without drawing comparisons, every nation at war, resorts to this special security background to set out a certain criteria for its future leaders. As such, the capacity of conflict management and not conflict resolution is what dictates who should be a leader.

In this respect, the Palestinians have set a new rule, a rule that should be copied by other nations, including mostly Israel. President Mahmoud Abbas won the presidential elections in Palestine despite his "poor military career." He did not serve in the battlefield as much as in the political sphere of FATAH movement. Yet he won the support of 64 percent of the Palestinian voters in the elections that took place in January 2005. The Palestinian people wanted a leader who had a clear agenda on how to solve the conflict, and not an agenda on how to sustain it. That was impressive and the Palestinian voters should be accorded maximum appreciation for doing so.

Back to Livni, she does indeed have good chances to become the new prime minister in Israel. Who knows? She may excel where men failed. The only female prime minister in Israel's history was Golda Meir but she was not that lucky as the October War of 1973 took her by surprise and subsequently forced her to step down. Since then, not a single female leader managed to get to the top of the political echelon in Israel. There were and are many bright faces such as Yuli Tamir, Limor Livnat, Tamar Gozanski and others but none of them had the chance to be the number 1. Perhaps, male chauvinism had something to do with this. Perhaps, it was a matter of bad luck too.

I myself have heard a number of Livni's acquaintances describing her political views. According to them, she has a considerable margin of flexibility that can match the main parameters of the Geneva Initiative and the Arab Peace Initiative. Behind closed doors, they said, Livni adopts courageous stands. Nevertheless, they added, she is very stubborn when it comes to the question of Palestinian refugees' right of return. She strongly rejects any formula that suggests Israel should allow, even a limited number of Palestinian refugees, to return.

This question in itself can be solved through the principle the Arab Peace Initiative presents. It speaks of an agreed resolution to the question of refugees based on UN Resolution 194. Livni, and for this matter, any future prime minister in Israel, will have to deal with this matter in practical terms, not ideological.

In negotiations, each party reaches a point where ideologies and arguments on the past should not be allowed to disrupt agreements on the future. The past is unchangeable. The sad memories are inerasable. However, the needs for a better life and future are unquestionable. That is exactly the point where genuine leaders are judged. That is why the Palestinians think highly of their president, Mahmoud Abbas. That is the background, against which the Israelis should elect any future leader. The rule should not be the criterion of how successful was the military past of any given candidate. It should be based on how genuine is her or his plan for reaching the two-state solution along the 1967 lines.