HOWZAT

Her meteoric rise has led Ms Livni across the political spectrum, from her pedigree as daughter of nationalist militants in the anti-British Irgun underground movement to the hard-right politics of the Likud Party, and now to the point where she could potentially find herself the leader who seals a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Born in Tel Aviv in July 1958, Ms Livni gained the rank of lieutenant in the Israel army before joining the spy service Mossad, where she was based in Paris. Although some reports have pegged her as a frontline hunter of Arab terrorists operating across Europe, one Israeli television station recently asserted she had held a far less glamorous role in the world of espionage: simply occupying a safe-house in the French capital to give it the semblance of a normal apartment.

Ms Livni’s later political career has far outstripped that of her daring father. Having quit Mossad to marry and start a family, she became a commercial lawyer before entering the Knesset, or Israeli parliament, in 1999 on a Likud ticket. In 2001 she held her first minor ministerial post in the government of Ariel Sharon, who went on to found Kadima after falling out with the inflexible stance of Likud.

Ms Livni followed Mr Sharon when the former general broke with the right-wing orthodoxy he had done so much over the years to promote and ordered the army to evacuate thousands of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip three years ago.

Times Archive, 1948: End of Palestine mandate

The Jewish National Council in Tel Aviv has proclaimed a new Jewish State of Israel. Mr Ben Gurion has been made Prime Minister

• Archive Topic: Establishment of the State of Israel

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Mr Sharon suffered a stroke in early 2006, but Ms Livni followed his path from the right towards the centre of the political field. Under Mr Olmert’s scandal-plagued leadership she became the head of the Israeli team negotiating in secret over an agreement setting out the principles under which a future Palestinian state could be established.

But the difficulties ahead are many: although she is popular among the electorate, she is seen by many politicians as inexperienced in dealing with Israel’s many strategic threats, including the future risk of a nuclear-armed Iran that is trying to assert its presence not only in the Gaza Strip, controlled by its local Islamist allies Hamas, but also in the West Bank, where Israel’s secular negotiating partners Fatah are still clinging to power.

Ms Livni, who has called for a tough diplomatic approach in dealing with Iran – but who has refused to rule out the option of force -- will be the first woman Prime Minister of Israel since Golda Meir, who held the office from 1969-74.

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