Former defence chief Shaul Mofaz has unseated former diplomat Tsipi Livni as head of Kadima, Israel’s largest opposition party, results of aleadership vote showed today.
A final count gave Mofaz 61.7 per cent of the vote,while former foreign minister Livni polled 37.2 per cent,
in a stunning defeat seen as punishment for a recent popularity nosedive that threatened to derail the party.
‘I called Shaul Mofaz and wished him good luck. These are the results,’ Livni, flashing a flustered smile, said
in a rushed statement at her Tel Aviv headquarters,conceding the poll of Kadima’s 100,000 members.
While opinion polls have shown Mofaz as unlikely to defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the next
Israeli election expected by next year, some pundits feel the new Kadima head’s security credentials may enhance the party’s electoral chances.
The Iranian-born Mofaz, a tough military chief of staff and later defence minister during a Palestinian uprising
that erupted in 2000, called in his victory speech for party unity behind a new bid to defeat Netanyahu.
He vowed to ‘lead a new social order’ to fight for the nation’s poor, seek a renewal of moribund Middle East
diplomacy and ‘campaign for Israel’s image and its future’.
A grandfather of three and father of four, Mofaz, who chairs a prestigious parliamentary panel on defence
affairs, has backed now-deadlocked peace talks with the Palestinians and shown a readiness for compromise.
HOPES TO REVITALISE
The results of centrist Kadima’s contest showed he owed his victory in part to overwhelming support from Israeli
Arab citizens among Kadima’s rank-and-file. Some Kadima members hope Mofaz may revitalise their
former ruling party, founded by former prime minister Ariel Sharon when he bolted from the right-wing Likud
party now headed by Netanyahu, after a 2005 Gaza pullout.
Kadima won more parliamentary seats than Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party in Israel’s last national ballot in
2009. But Livni failed to put together a coalition government that would have given her party real power.
Netanyahu instead joined forces with nationalist and religious parties to form a coalition government; Kadima’s
popularity has plummeted ever since.
Though Israel’s biggest opposition party, recent opinion polls showed Kadima was on course to lose more
than half its seats in Israel’s 120-member parliament and could end up with just 12 seats, down from 28 now.
Ruhama Avraham, a Kadima parliament member and longtime supporter of Mofaz, said after his victory:
‘Kadima will be judged by its ability to present a social economic programme and also a diplomatic plan to
the table. This is something Shaul Mofaz can do.’
