Kadima their supporters from doing so. Neither Labor nor Meretz, who were initially expected to be Kadima's natural allies, recommended Livni as prime minister to Peres, reportedly due to Livni's courting of Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party. Shimon Peres told Ynet in 2006 that "there is no difference" between Kadima and Labor, and suggested that the two groups unite. He added that neither he nor Kadima founder Ariel Sharon liked the economic policy of Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu. The "Haaretz" diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn suggested in November 2009, that Kadima does not have any ideological differences with the Labor Party that
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