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
Shaul Mofaz elections, but lost his cabinet position after Likud formed the government. On 27 March 2012, Shaul Mofaz won the Kadima party leadership primaries by a landslide, defeating party chairwoman Tzipi Livni. Mofaz became Vice Prime Minister as part of a deal reached for a government of national unity with Binyamin Netanyahu. Mofaz said during the Kadima primaries that he would not join a government led by Netanyahu. Mofaz left over Netanyahu's indecision over a draft reform law and warned that the prime minister was trying to patch together a majority for a vote to plunge the region into war. In