Tzipi Livni in Ehud Barak’s footsteps

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“Nothing can explain his staying in the government except his personal desire to be defense minister. He gives a stamp of approval to the wrong things, things that were never connected to the Labor Party,” said opposition chairwoman and Knesset member Tzipi Livni about former Prime Minister Ehud Barak in an interview on May 22, 2009, to then journalist Yair Lapid on Channel 2 after the formation of Netanyahu’s government.

“So long as I am in the government, the dangerous ideas will not be carried out,” Justice Minister Livni said about Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett in an interview with Channel 2 on May 23 in the midst of a crisis in the diplomatic negotiations with the Palestinians.

Five years, almost to the day, passed between the two interviews. But in 2009 it was Barak who justified his party’s decision to join the government, exactly like Livni today, with the explanation that so long as they are in the government, the right is not. In May 2014, Livni’s detractors are the ones who can say, in the same coarse language she had used to castigate Barak, that the only reason for her to remain in the government is her personal desire to serve as justice minister; what she said about Barak could be said about her. One can also say about Livni that there is a basis to argue that she “puts the stamp of approval on the wrong things,” things that were never connected to the Hatnua Party that she heads.

In May 2009, Livni argued to interviewer Lapid, “The Arab world is against Hamas and the only thing that Prime Minister Netanyahu wants is to get home in one piece, but without peace.” In May 2014, Finance Minister Lapid extricated Livni from Netanyahu who wanted to fire her in retaliation for a meeting she held with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.This time it was Livni who got home in one piece, but without the peace. Netanyahu made it clear to her that the next time she dares to talk to the neighbors, she will come home without the official ministerial car. Netanyahu’s close aide, Minister of Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz, made an overt threat on May 24 that if Livni continues to meet with Abbas, “she won’t be able to serve as a minister in the government.”

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/05/livni-netanyahu-far-right-government-meeting-abbas-lapid.html#ixzz32vtes573

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1. Oy. nt

[Jefferson23]

2. I know, talk about tangled..sheesh. n/t

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3. Expediency rules.

Principles are not worth much unless you stick to them when it becomes inconvenient.

[Jefferson23]

4. Principles, I wish we had some of that here for us too. n/t