Tzipi Livni to pay a price to form a government, but I was never willing to risk the political and economic future of Israel. If someone is willing to sell out his principles for the job, he is not worthy of it." For its part, Likud, the main opposition party led by Benjamin Netanyahu, lobbied Shas and other parties essential to Livni's government to support early elections. In February 2009 Israel held elections for the Knesset. Livni, foreign minister and head of the Kadima party, campaigned against Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud party to lead the new government. While election results gave
Eitan Livni Eitan Livni Yeruham "Eitan" Livni (; 1 April 1919 – 27 December 1991) was a Revisionist Zionist activist, Irgun commander and Israeli politician, father of Israeli politician Tzipi Livni. Livni was born in Grodno, Poland (now in Belarus) on 1 April 1919 to Yitzhak and Dvora. His family moved to Mandatory Palestine in 1925 and settled in Tel Aviv. He went to High School and Trade School in Tel Aviv, and in 1938, he joined the Betar movement at Zikhron Ya'akov, where he was assigned to agricultural work and guard duty. Soon after, he joined the Irgun, and a year