Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni sought on Friday to restore unity within her governing Kadima Party as new divisions emerged in the wake of her narrow victory in this week's primary. Livni met top party members in a bid to stress the need to close ranks as the centrist party seeks to form a new coalition government. After the meeting, Livni told journalists that she wanted to form a government "as soon as possible, as long as everybody acts responsibly."Livni won Wednesday's vote to replace scandal-plagued Premier Ehud Olmert as party leader, but she may struggle to find enough coalition partners to command a parliamentary majority and avert early elections.
She 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. Evidently disgruntled, Mofaz, a hawkish former military chief of staff, said Thursday he would take a break from politics in a move Israeli media called a "bombshell."
Senior Kadima figures described Mofaz's decision as "crushing the party," the Maariv daily said, amid media speculation he could return to the right-wing opposition Likud Party that he, Livni and Olmert left in 2005.
Livni, a 50-year-old former Mossad spy who has been leading the US-backed peace negotiations with the Palestinians, will have 42 days to form a new coalition if early parliamentary elections are to be avoided. At the Kadima meeting, marked by the absence of Mofaz, Livni said she hoped to maintain the current alliance with the center-left Labor Party and the religious party Shas. "There is no reason to change the set-up of the coalition," she said.
Labor members have reportedly sent out mixed messages, with some demanding a renegotiation of coalition agreements and party leader Ehud Barak, the defense minister, calling for snap elections.