Israeli Election Update: Is Tzipi Livni Fit to Lead?
Written by: Aaron Katsman | February 5, 2009
It’s no secret that i am not the biggest fan of current foreign Minister and PM wannabe Tzipi Livni and have raised many times the point of why the media doesn’t report her objectively. Well an unlikely source, from the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, came out with a blistering attack on her, and how she can’t be PM.
Ari Shavit rips into her ability to be a leader. ” But there is one fault that no one disputes: Livni is short-tempered. Her more serious critics believe she has an attention deficit. She is incapable of delving into the details of a document or of sustaining an extended discussion. She does not stay with a topic until it has been completely clarified. Her thinking is not clear and she cannot distinguish the wheat from the chaff. Unlike Netanyahu and Barak, who can get to the bottom of an issue and discuss it in all its complexity, Livni tends to oversimplify, to go for the schematic. One of the most respected figures in the country says she is opinionated and superficial.”
While that is bad enough I think it’s the fact that she can’t make a decision that should doom her in the minds of voters. After all, an Israeli leader needs to be able to make tough, unpopular decisions, and make them quickly. Shavit says, “She finds it very hard to make decisions. Even with noncritical decisions she deliberates, wavers, delays and changes her opinion over and over. Some people believe the combination of inexperience and lack of confidence paralyzes Livni. They think the foreign minister is incapable of deciding whether to launch a strike against Iran. Livni does not have the spine, levelheadedness and internal calm necessary to take the most critical decisions.”
This is really scary stuff, and the fcat that the mainstream media refuses to report it is a tremendous dis-service. Shavit takes one more shot at Livni at teh conclusion of his article. “One of the people I spoke to was especially agitated despite being a mature, restrained and conservative person. He told me he felt like a member of some cult with a terrible secret: Tzipi Livni is not fit to be prime minister. There is a black flag waving above her journey to the Prime Minister’s Office. The witness said it was inconceivable to him that the media are not revealing this secret; intolerable that the public does not know. That is why he spoke, that is why I recorded his words. That is why this piece was published. So the public will know - and decide.”
Wow. Let’s hope that the Israeli electorate heeds the warning beofre it’s too late.
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