FLASHBACK 2009 - Ari Shavit: Tzipi Livni is Short-Tempered, Hollow, Inconsistent, Not Fit To Be Prime Minister

(Ari Shavit, Haaretz Feb, 04, 2009) Over the past week I took statements from about a dozen people who know Tzipi Livni quite well. . The portrait they paint of Livni is a disturbing one... 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. Livni tends to oversimplify, to go for the schematic.

 

She finds it very hard to make decisions. Even with noncritical decisions she deliberates, wavers, delays and changes her opinion over and over.. Livni does not have the spine, levelheadedness and internal calm necessary to take the most critical decisions.

Livni neither understands people nor likes them. That is why she has no inner circle of confidants. Livni lacks personal warmth or charm...She does not take the long view, is inconsistent, and her deep fear of failure prevents her from being daring and original. She disguises her internal panic with exaggerated displays of self-confidence that sometimes border on rudeness. Her appointments are mediocre and her teamwork is poor. 

Tzipi Livni is hollow...Livni lacks the cultural baggage, historic vision, emotional tools and personal abilities of a leader. She has never shown civil courage, has no achievements to her name and has never gone against the tide. She recites a series of correct statements about dividing the country but does not know how to translate them into policy..

Livni did not understand the Iranian challenge in advance, did not take it on board and effectively did nothing in the international arena to deal with it. Iran's nuclear program is what turned Livni's term as foreign minister into a colossal failure. 

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