Tzipi Livni

Tziporah Malka "Tzipi" Livni (ציפי (ציפורה) מלכה לבני, ; born 8 July 1958) is an Israeli politician, diplomat, and lawyer.

A former member of the Knesset and leader in the center-left political camp, Livni is a former foreign minister, vice prime minister, minister of justice, and leader of the opposition.

She is known by some for her efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Widely considered the most powerful woman in Israel since Golda Meir, Livni has served in eight different cabinet positions throughout her career, setting the record for most government roles held by an Israeli woman.

She has been the first female Israeli vice prime minister, justice minister, agriculture minister, and housing minister.

Born to a prominent right-wing, revisionist Zionist family, Livni has become one of Israel's leading voices in support of a two-state solution—one that ensures Israel's security and identity as a Jewish and democratic state.

Among her supporters in Israel and in international media, Livni was given the nickname "Mrs. Clean" for her image as an "honest politician."

Livni began studying law at Bar-Ilan University in 1979, but suspended her law studies when she joined the Mossad in 1980.

She served in the Mossad from 1980 to 1984, between the ages of 22 and 26.

According to an interview in Yedioth Ahronoth described in The Sunday Times, she served in the elite unit responsible for the assassinations following the Munich massacre.

During the 1984 Likud primaries, her father, who had served in the Knesset for Herut and Likud as a moderate, did not campaign for a seat in the Knesset, and urged party members to support a Druze candidate instead because he thought it important for Likud to have Arab representation.

Livni served in the IDF, attaining the rank of Lieutenant.

She resigned from the Mossad in August 1984 to marry and finish her law studies.

Livni graduated with an LL.B. from Bar-Ilan University's Faculty of Law in 1984.

She is married to advertising executive Naftali Spitzer, and the couple have two children, Omri (born 1987) and Yuval (born 1990).

Livni's father, Eitan Livni, a Herut member of Knesset, died in 1991.

She practiced at a private firm for about ten years, specializing in commercial law, public law, and real estate law, before entering public life in 1996.

Livni resides in Ramat HaHayal, Tel Aviv.

Spitzer, who was raised in a Mapai-supporting family but switched to Likud in 1996, has gone on to support his wife's political career from the start in the 1990s.

Livni is a vegetarian.

Besides her native language, Hebrew, Livni also speaks fluent English and French, having lived in Paris for a number of years.

Livni entered politics in 1996 when she ran for a spot on Likud's Knesset list and was given place number 36 on the slate.

Likud won 32 seats in the 1996 election, leaving her out, but newly elected Prime Minister Netanyahu appointed her as director general of the government-owned corporations authority, where she oversaw the privatization of a number of companies.

While in this capacity, in 1998 she was considered a prominent candidate to become director general of the Finance Ministry.

From 2001 to 2009, Livni served in the cabinets of Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, most notably as foreign minister, during which time she led multiple rounds of peace talks with the Palestinians.

Her mother, Sara, who died in 2007, stood by Livni's decision to leave Likud and also accepted her support for the two-state solution, although it "hurt her."

In September 2008, Livni prepared to take office as prime minister, but the political climate in the country prevented her from forming a government.

The following year, she led her party to win a plurality of seats in the Knesset, but was again blocked from becoming prime minister, due to the rightist parties' majority in the Knesset.

Consequently, she served as leader of the opposition from 2009, until her resignation from the Knesset in 2012.

Later that year, Livni founded a new party, Hatnuah, to compete in the 2013 elections, after which she was appointed Justice Minister in the Thirty-third government of Israel, again leading a new round of Israeli–Palestinian peace talks.

In December 2014, a number of policy disputes within the government led Benjamin Netanyahu to dismiss Livni from his cabinet and call new elections.

In the 2015 election, Livni joined forces with Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog to create the Zionist Union, a unified bloc of their two parties.

In January 2019 Avi Gabay announced that Labor would not run with Hatnuah in the April 2019 Israeli legislative election.

On 18 February 2019, following several weeks of poor poll results, Livni announced her retirement from politics as well as Hatnuah's withdrawal from the election.

Born in Tel Aviv, Livni is the daughter of Eitan Livni (born in Poland) and Sara (née Rosenberg), both prominent former Irgun members.

After Israel's independence, Eitan and Sara Livni became the first couple to marry in the new state.

Her father served as the chief operations officer of the Irgun.

As a child, Livni was a member of the Betar youth movement and played basketball for Elitzur Tel Aviv.

Growing up in an Israel dominated by the Labour Party, Livni says she felt marginalized, believing that the establishment had minimized her parents' contribution to Israel's founding.

Despite the hard-line image of the Irgun, she says her parents had respect for the Arabs and acted only against the British army, not civilians.