Tzipi Livni have "a clear choice in February between a leader who has the courage to abandon tired old thinking on politics and security and one who has not." Although it expressed some doubts, the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" also endorsed Livni for prime minister. When Livni was tapped to form the next governing coalition, Palestinian political analyst Mahdi Abdel Hadi said that Livni had been received warmly in the Gulf, and that she was the leader most Arabs want to see as Israel's next prime minister. During the 2009 general elections, Arab media depicted her very negatively but as the lesser of
Tzipi Livni up to the elections suggested Livni and Herzog had overtaken Netanyahu, and would emerge with a plurality of voters. Initial exit polls indicated that both parties had won 27 seats, but the final count showed the Zionist Union garnering only 24 mandates to the Likud's 30. Following the elections, Livni and the Zionist Union went into opposition. Livni currently serves as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the . In August 2015, in response to the submission of a motion to raise the Palestinian flag at the UN headquarters, Livni initiated the creation of the Foreign