Tzipi Livni if they won enough votes, though Livni also stated she would step back if her participation presented a hurdle to coalition building. Widely seen as being a "game-changer" in what was initially thought would be an effectively uncontested election resulting in Netanyahu's reelection, the partnership between Livni and Herzog created significant momentum and galvanized Israel's center-left voters, who saw the partnership as having a realistic chance to form a government, something which had been absent in the previous elections. Indeed, many opinion polls during the campaign showed Likud and the Zionist Union in dead heat, and the few weeks leading
Tzipi Livni party members to support a Druze candidate instead because he thought it important for Likud to have Arab representation. Livni served in the IDF, gaining rank of lieutenant. Livni began studying law at Bar-Ilan University in 1979, but suspended her law studies when she joined the Mossad in 1980. She served in the Mossad from 1980 to 1984, between the ages of 22 and 26. According to an interview in "Yedioth Ahronoth" described in "The Sunday Times", she served in the elite unit responsible for Operation Wrath of God. She resigned from the Mossad in August 1983 to marry and