ISRAEL: LIVNI, JAEGER (MIDDLE EAST EXPERT) "GOOD FOR CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS TOO" (2)

"But in Israel – continues the Franciscan priest –, she is remembered as the prime minister who failed to welcome the peace signs that came from Egypt and who therefore had to preside over the disaster of the war that broke out in October 1973, "the Kippur war", before falling from power, dragging along a whole generation of the Labour Party and paving the way, for the first time in the history of the country, in 1977, to a government led by the nationalist right wing, also supported by religious fundamentalists". However, according to Jaeger, "there is no reason to suspect this would happen with Livni, who is widely respected by everyone in Israel, not only for being considered scrupulously honest, just when the outgoing prime minister is under investigation for alleged corruption – which at least in Israel is unprecedented, and unimaginable in the past – but also for having overcome her origins in the ‘fighting family’ of the right wing and become a reliable, willing interlocutor to the neighbouring nations, in pursuit of pactional peace". About the political future, the expert recalls that "’Tzippi’ is not a prime minister yet, but just the president of Kadima, and she will have to work harder still to become prime minister. Many people – although not everybody – in Israel wish her to be successful and achieve the goals that she seems to be wanting to set out for herself: peace and harmony with everyone".” “