Livni To Lead Opposition For Rest Of Career

The sixty-year-old can maintain her commitment to not quite making it to the top, and to finding just the right moment to jump ship.

Jerusalem, July 26 – Congratulations to a veteran lawmaker poured in today following the announcement that Labor Party chief Avi Gabbay will step aside as Opposition Leader in favor of ally Tzipi Livni, who leads the HaTnua Party, Labor’s partner in the Zionist Union alliance, allowing Livni to hold the position for as long as she remains in politics.

The sixty-year-old Livni, if she remains healthy, can continue her political career for at least another decade, according to analysts, and maintain her commitment to not quite making it to the top, and to finding just the right moment to jump ship.

“This is quite an exciting time for her,” observed veteran commentator Hanan Crystal during a segment on a morning radio program. “My colleagues and I predict that if all remains stable around her, Livni will retire from politics as Opposition Leader sometime in the middle of next decade.”

A secondary possibility, note some commentators, involves Livni identifying an opportunity to ally herself with a rising star or promising movement outside her own, leaving her current associates to clear the wreckage or also abandon HaTnua in short succession. “Of course she might follow the pattern she’s established already,” remarked Yediot Aharonot columnist Nahum Barnea. “Remember she used to be the next big thing in the Likud, when Ariel Sharon was in power? She even served as Minister of Justice. Then when he formed Kadima to ramrod the Gaza Disengagement through, she skipped Likud along with many others, leaving the party in a shambles that Netanyahu had to rebuild. She even rose to the top of Kadima after [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert had to resign over corruption charges. But even after beating Likud in the 2009 election, she couldn’t form a coalition, and she knew Kadima’s days were numbered – so she jumped ship again and formed her own party.”

“She’s basically toxic to right-wing parties,” continued Barnea. “And since the electorate isn’t buying what the Left is selling, well, she won’t be part of any foreseeable coalition in the next government, either. If she does abandon her train wreck of a party again to form a new one just to ally with someone else, she’ll make sure she gets to be head of the Opposition as part of the agreement, no matter how few parliamentary seats her party actually accounts for.”

“But right now she’s in her element,” added Crystal. “That is, criticizing Netanyahu for not implementing things that never worked but that sound good and make her look like a responsible, visionary stateswoman.”

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