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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel looks to ''Mrs Clean'' after age of scandal |
| 2008-09-21 |
| As Prime Minister Ehud Olmert bows out under a cloud of corruption allegations, Israel hopes his successor Tzipi Livni can live up to the "Mrs. Clean" label her supporters have given her as she tries to unite the ruling party. "Livni's victory did not stem from a feat of organization or from political alliances," columnist Nahum Barnea wrote when she was elected this week to succeed Olmert as Kadima party leader. "It stemmed from the public's general longing for new, fresh and mostly clean leadership," the influential Barnea wrote in the country's best-selling newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. However, Livni faced her first challenge hours after winning the vote with a lead of just one percentage point over her main rival, Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz. Livni sought to restore unity within the governing Kadima party as new rifts emerged. Livni met top party members to try to stress the need to close ranks as the centrist party seeks to form a new coalition government. Evidently disgruntled, Mofaz, a hawkish former army chief, said on Thursday he will take a break from politics in a move Israeli media called a "bombshell." Senior figures in Kadima defined Mofaz's decision as "crushing the party," the Maariv daily said, amid media speculation the minister could return to the right-wing opposition Likud party that he, Livni and Olmert left in 2005. At Friday's Kadima meeting, which was marked by the absence of Mofaz, Livni made it clear she hoped to maintain the current alliance with the centre-left Labor party and the religious party Shas. 'Clean politics' While Olmert's accusers have painted vivid tales of him accepting envelopes stuffed with cash in hotel rooms from an American businessman and of filing multiple claims for the same expenses, Livni has maintained a 'pure' image. The 50-year-old former Mossad spy and daughter of a prominent Zionist fighter from the days of Israel's creation in the 1940s, has tried to present herself as carrying a banner of integrity during her decade in politics. "It outrages me, the attempt to claim that it is a matter of norms that everyone who enters politics needs to adopt," she said in May after Olmert's cash donations first came to light. While campaigning this week to lead the Kadima party, she presented her candidacy to its members as a chance to put such scandals behind them: "This is a second chance to shape Israel's image, to fix the damage and to place the good of the country and its people at the centre," she said. Olmert plans to resign as premier once Livni has formed a new government coalition, a process that may take some weeks. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Yep, that was the ticket, "Clean", that help get Mr. Carter into the White House. Notice how well that worked out in Iran and your future security? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-09-21 13:11 |