Shaul Mofaz moved from the position of Defense Minister and received the Transport ministry in the new Cabinet installed on 4 May 2006. In 2008, with Israel's then prime minister, Ehud Olmert, being pressured to resign due to corruption charges, Mofaz announced that he would run for the leadership of the Kadima party. On 5 August 2008, Mofaz officially entered the race to be leader of Kadima. That same day he received a blessing by Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. On 17 September 2008, he lost the Kadima party election, losing to Tzipi Livni for the spot of the Prime Minister
Tzipi Livni the UN Security Council was influenced by his talks with Livni and former president Shimon Peres, who said such a move could serve the political interests of those opposing the peace process. After the dissolution of the Knesset in December 2014, Labor leader Isaac Herzog and Livni announced a joint slate between Labor and Hatnuah, called the Zionist Union, to contest the 2015 elections in an effort to keep Netanyahu, leader of the Likud Party, from securing a fourth term as prime minister. They proposed to share the role of prime minister (an arrangement known in the Knesset as rotation)