If later Sunday afternoon or on Sunday evening Premier-designate Tzipi Livni informs President Shimon Peres she is unable to form a government, going to the polls is not the only alternative. Mr. Peres has the option of handing the mandate of forming a government to another MK, possibly Shaul Mofaz, who lost the Kadima leadership race to Livni by a few hundred votes, but a minister whom many feel can indeed muster up a government coalition of 61 or more members.

A senior member of the Kadima coalition negotiating team was asked if he believes if Mofaz has been working behind the scenes, plotting Livni’s downfall and setting the stage for establishing a government, to which he responded with an unequivocal “no” on Sunday morning.

Mofaz’s support base in Kadima has grown and his courtship of Shas is obvious, coupled with the fact the chareidi parties, Shas and UTJ, would prefer sitting in a government led by a male, not Livni and her libertarian views.

Livni aides are signaling that she will meet with the president on Sunday evening, still indicating she plans to call for elections, an effort to preserve what they view as her pristine political image.

Opponents on the other hand have a different opinion, citing Livni is not clean and unscathed as she would have voters believe, for her long-term silence over the last months is not forgivable, and has permitted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to continue, despite widespread government corruption.

Livni they explain preferred to place her own political future ahead of the national interests and remained silent in the backdrop of many a police investigation. She also hid behind the Winograd Commission and did not face responsibility regarding her role in the decision-making process pertaining to the Second Lebanon War.

The final word will come from the president, who may signal elections or hand the mandate to Mofaz, or even opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu. Until the meeting between the two takes place, all the possibilities remain in the realm of conjecture and speculation.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)