Tzipi Livni "the second most powerful politician in Israel". Livni is the second woman in Israel to hold the post of foreign minister, after Golda Meir. In 2007, she was included in the "Time" 100 Most Influential People in the World. "Forbes" ranked her the 40th most powerful woman in the world in 2006, 39th in 2007, and 52nd in 2008. Livni became the first Israeli cabinet minister to explicitly differentiate Palestinian guerrilla attacks against Israeli military targets from terrorist attacks against civilians. In an interview on the US television news show "Nightline", recorded on 28 March 2006, Livni stated, "Somebody who
2009 Israeli legislative election new prime minister. On 17 September 2008, Kadima held a leadership election, which was won by Tzipi Livni. Following Livni's victory, former party leader Ehud Olmert (who did not run in the contest) resigned as Prime Minister. Livni was given six weeks to form a coalition, but set a deadline of 26 October for parties to agree to join the new government. Although the Labor Party agreed to join, current coalition members Shas rejected the opportunity, with Livni claiming that they had made "economically and diplomatically illegitimate" demands (which included a reluctance to increasing child benefits and rejecting the possible