RUTHFULLY YOURS

On Friday, the host of a political program on Al Tahrir TV in Egypt delivered an oral editorial on Tzipi Livni, who served as Israel’s justice minister and chief negotiator with the Palestinians until early last month, when the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu collapsed.

Before delving into the content of the editorial, and receiving a dose of sorely needed comic relief from the tragedies around us, let us first review what Livni has been up to these days.

Clearly worried about her future prospects in politics, Livni, the head of the Hatnuah party, joined forces with Labor leader Isaac Herzog. The two reached the conclusion that a merger would give the “peace camp” a better chance of beating Netanyahu in the March elections. So desperate were they not to be left in the dustbin of Israeli history that each agreed to a rotation as prime minister (Herzog for the first two years, and Livni for the remainder of the term), in the event that their “Zionist Camp” bloc garners enough votes to form the next coalition.

In a joint statement, Livni and Herzog announced that with them at the helm of the country, “Israel would take diplomatic steps to enlist the world to Israel’s side.” This was in reference to their shared view that Netanyahu is to blame for anti-Israel sentiment on the international stage.

And though Livni admitted to Roger Cohen of the New York Times that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is actually the one responsible for the lack of a negotiated two-state solution (“Why Israeli-Palestinian peace failed,” Dec. 23), she made sure to toot her own horn at the expense of Netanyahu.

“For me, any day that goes by without a solution is another lost day,” she told Cohen. “For those believing in the idea of Greater Israel, another day that passes without an agreement is another day of victory and taking more land.”

To add insult to idiocy, Livni also blasted Netanyahu in relation to Abbas’ latest blatant aggression against the Jewish state he does not recognize — joining the International Criminal Court in order to sue Israel for war crimes. Last Sunday night, on the eve of the swearing in of a new Fatah-Hamas unity government in Ramallah, Netanyahu convened his security cabinet to discuss how to proceed with these developments.

During that meeting, the eight-member team decided to cease all negotiations with the PA as long as Hamas is involved in governance, and to withhold the transfer of approximately $125 million in taxes to the PA, reallocating the money to pay off the PA’s debts to Israeli companies. (This move, by the way, was called a “war crime” by Livni’s Palestinian negotiating counterpart, Saeb Erekat.)

Livni may believe that her fabrications about Netanyahu — in whose government she was a full and active participant — are going to pan out to her advantage at the ballot box. She might even be right, though it is highly doubtful that the Israeli public will fall for her antics. After all, she was the one whom Netanyahu put in charge of peace talks in the first place. And she herself has expressed open exasperation with the behavior of her Palestinian “partners” in this endeavor.

She is lucky, however, that she is not running in any elections beyond Israel’s borders.

As is commonly the case with Western politicians whose fantasies about peace in the Middle East earn them reputations as buffoons among those they try to frame as democracy-seekers, Livni has been a frequent target of ridicule in the Arab world.

This brings us to what was said about her on Jan. 2 by Egyptian talk-show host Mohamed Al-Gheity.

The following is a translation of the two-minute clip, provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute:

“According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the beautiful Tzipi Livni, who was the Israeli foreign minister in the days of Ariel Sharon and is justice minister in the current government of Benjamin Netanyahu, told the newspaper something very strange.

“Livni was one of the whores of Israeli politics. She admits this, and even wrote in her memoirs that she had sex with many Palestinian leaders in order to accomplish the Israeli goals.

“Interestingly, this is the first time that she admits having had sex with Palestinian, Lebanese, and many other Arab leaders and ministers. The new thing is that she said, ‘and Egyptians too.’ That is the new thing said by Tzipi Livni, the whore of Israel.

“But she did not mention names. The truth is that I am not that curious to know the names, but … when?! The date is of great importance. The newspaper did not reveal this, but only quoted Livni as saying that she had sexual relations with Egyptian officials, in order to accomplish the supreme goals of Israel.

“The new thing, which is also strange and peculiar, is that she secured the permission of a Jewish rabbi — just like the Muslim Brotherhood. That’s what members of the Muslim Brotherhood do. They secure fatwas permitting them to lie, to pimp whores, to deal drugs, and to kill.

“In my view, that girl Livni is just like the Muslim Brotherhood. They are two sides of the same Zionist coin.”

Though even Livni’s harshest critics at home would not go this far, we are reminded of her calling Netanyahu “impotent,” “trash” and “zero” on the Israeli political satire show “The State of the Nation” last month.

Livni ought to have learned by now that what goes around comes around. Others wish she would simply go away.

Ruthie Blum is the author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring.'”