The Warped Mirror: Why they love Livni

These days, it's not all that easy for an Israeli politician to get praise from the foreign press, which is often quick to take off the gloves when there is a chance to blame Israel for the lack of peace in the Middle East, if not the world. But Tzipi Livni somehow manages to get the press to reach for the velvet gloves and behave nicely.

That is all the more remarkable given that Livni would seem to be a very unlikely candidate for such preferential treatment - after all, she began her political career as a protégé of Ariel Sharon, who is no favorite among foreign commentators. On top of that, she comes from a family of famous Irgun fighters, who nowadays would be labeled as terrorists by many. Yet, even on Al Jazeera, it is not Livni's background, but her "pragmatic stance" that is emphasized and illustrated by quoting her as saying: "I came to the painful realization that if I have to choose between a Greater Israel and Israel continuing to be a Jewish and democratic country, I must choose the latter."

It was already more than a year ago that the foreign press decided to crown Livni as the rising star of Israeli politics. In July 2007, the Los Angeles Times declared: "The new face of Israel is a woman"; and the New York Times Magazine featured an in-depth piece by star-columnist Roger Cohen entitled "Her Jewish State". Even the British media that can always be counted on to find a critical angle on anything related to Israel seems taken by Livni and ready to accept her as "Guardian of Israel's future".

One aspect that seems to impress people who have interviewed Livni is that she comes across as authentic - as the LA Times put it: "Livni is not a natural schmoozer like, say, Netanyahu; her English is not flawless and her Israeli accent remains thick. She often seems aloof." It is perhaps precisely the perception that Livni is not a smooth political operator that makes her interviewers accept her views at face value, without the usual search for ulterior motives.

In addition, Livni appears as very consistent in her core convictions. It is instructive to compare some of the older reports on Livni with current reports. This is what Livni was quoted as saying in the LA Times article published more than a year ago: "I couldn't live anymore with a party [like the Likud] whose ideology or platform starts with the words no, no, no. No Palestinian state, no this, no that ...The center ... should not be a vacuum between left and right; the center is an ideology." And this is what The Jerusalem Post's Herb Keinon reported from a Livni speech on the campaign trail last week:  "Livni tried to provide the party activists with a vision, saying a centrist party was not a default option, but rather a choice, and that it was driven by an ideology that rejected both the nay-saying of the Right, and the reality-avoidance of the Left."

The way Keinon put it - "the nay-saying of the Right, and the reality-avoidance of the Left" - may well provide a clue why Livni is able to sway even members of the liberal-leftist press abroad in her favor: she firmly rejects right-wing notions that peace between Israel and the Palestinians is either not possible, or not desirable, and she has indeed argued that a peace agreement is in Israel's vital interest; but it is precisely this very pragmatic approach that views peace not so much as an ideal, but as a necessity, that lends a certain credibility to Livni's criticism of the "reality-avoidance of the Left."

The views of an Israeli politician on peace are obviously the main focus of the foreign press, and while Livni has been occasionally criticized by Israeli commentators for not being specific enough about her vision, she has actually published a rather impressive outline of her ideas more than a year ago - in Asharq Alawsat, the London-based Arabic language daily newspaper. Her core convictions, which surface consistently in every interview she gives, are reflected in this article, including her political credo:

Israel's raison d'être was, and remains, to be a peaceful democratic and Jewish state - with these values existing in harmony and not in contradiction. It is these very values that lead us to embrace the vision of two homelands, two states - Israel and Palestine - living side by side in peace and security, and to pursue genuine peace with all our neighbours."

Western diplomats who have worked with Livni credit her with a willingness to go the extra mile in order to find some creative formula for a solution when it comes to the negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians; at the same time, Livni has put down very firm "red lines" that make her a rather hawkish dove - but that is apparently regarded by many commentators as just another indication that she has what it takes to claim the center for herself.