OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – Former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni announced her return to politics Tuesday, telling supporters that she was forming a new party to run in January parliamentary elections on a platform promising an aggressive push for peace with the Palestinians. Livni, who served as Israel's foreign minister and chief peace negotiator from 2006 to 2009, bitterly attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as she announced the formation of her new party, called “The Movement.” “I came to fight for peace ... and I won't allow anyone to turn peace into a bad word,” she said. Her announcement brought a new, high-profile voice to the campaign to oust Netanyahu's hardline government. But with his Likud Party leading in opinion polls and the dovish opposition divided between several parties, her candidacy did not immediately appear to pose a threat to the prime minister. During Netanyahu's four years in power, peace talks with the Western-backed Palestinian government of President Mahmoud Abbas have remained frozen. Frustrated with the impasse, Abbas is now heading to the United Nations this week to seek upgraded observer status for his people. Israel opposes the bid, saying Palestinian independence can only come through negotiations. At the same time, Israel has now entered indirect, Egypt-mediated negotiations with Abbas' rival, the Hamas movement, as part of a ceasefire deal that ended an eight-day Israeli military offensive in Hamas' Gaza stronghold last week. Livni was internationally respected during her term as foreign minister, forging a strong relationship with her American counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, as well as the Palestinians. She has been identified by both Time and Newsweek magazines as one of the world's most influential women. But she has stumbled as a politician. Livni assumed leadership of the centrist Kadima Party in 2009 elections after then-prime minister Ehud Olmert was forced to resign because of a corruption scandal. – AP
