Ms Livni showed as foreign minister during Israel's recent Gaza war that she is no cooing dove.
He wobbled feebly over whether to endorse a recent controversial report by Richard Goldstone on the Gaza war.
ECONOMIST: The Palestinians look both divided and leaderless
During Israel's Gaza war this year al-Jazeera broadcast the sort of unedited footage that most stations deem too gruesome to air.
Three years ago, Israel promised to draw up new rules on the use of shells containing white phosphorus, in the wake of the Gaza war.
There was outrage in Israel when a British judge issued a warrant for the arrest of the former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who was in power during the Gaza war.
Israeli generals and politicians insist that the Gaza war means that their army is once again feared, in a way that it wasn't after Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas fought it to a standstill in 2006.
Neither the onslaught from Gaza nor the war from Lebanon would have happened if Israel hadn't left Gaza in 2005 and Lebanon in 2000.
In light of this new report, which contradicts earlier US intelligence assessments that claimed it would be years before Iran is able to build nuclear weapons, it is possible that Iran ordered the current war in Gaza for the same reason it launched its war in 2006: to divert international attention away from its nuclear program.
Remarkably in the circumstances parts of the West Bank and Gaza are a war zone, teeming with Israeli soldiers and armed Palestinians the election campaign has looked free and fair (see article).
But both Israel and America want to avoid a repeat of the controversial UN report issued in September by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge, which accused Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, of war crimes during Israel's three-week attack on Gaza which began in December 2008.
They cite what they deem unfair attitudes over such issues as the Turkish flotilla Israel stopped from sailing to Gaza, killing nine Turks in so doing, and the UN's Goldstone report critical of Israel's war in Gaza in 2009.
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The same Olmert who has exhibited unconscionable incompetence in contending with the Hamas caliphate in Gaza, its rocket and mortar war against southern Israel and its takeover of Gaza's international border with Egypt.
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Grimmacing to victory, grinning to defeat
Israel seized Gaza during the 1967 war, and withdrew settlers from there in 2005.
This was the second war in Gaza in which the Palestinian Authority and Fatah weren't involved.
Above all, Mr bin Laden sought to exploit Muslim outrage over Israel's war in Gaza.
They offered up Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria again in 2008 and got the missile war from Gaza.
The potential for another war in Gaza and the chance that it could spread is my biggest worry.
Next month will see a critical UN report on human-rights abuses during Israel's war on Gaza at the turn of the year.
But now, with the rise of Hamas and the war in Gaza, the brief period of relative hope is in danger of flickering out.
Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, Britain's domestic intelligence service, is among those who worry that the war in Gaza will have radicalised more Muslims.
The event at Trafalgar Square is expected to draw thousands of people a week after a huge rally against Israel's war in Gaza was held there.
Hamas's electoral victory, its subsequent ouster of Fatah forces from Gaza and its recent war with Israel tells us another fundamental truth about the sources of the repeated failure of the US's bid for Palestinian statehood.
The e-mail, which appeared authentic, said the rally was cancelled because it "might be perceived as the community taking one side in the tragic war in Gaza and Israel, and might be seen as supporting Israel's military campaign".
The Iranian leader stressed that that the war in Gaza has not yet ended, noting that "the Islamic Resistance must, with full alertness and in proper ways, prepare itself fully for the possibility of the beginning of another war, " Fars reported.
Just as has been the case with Hizbullah since the government failed to destroy the terror army in 2006, so if Hamas remains in control of Gaza after the current war, no matter what its condition, it will be perceived as the winner.
"The war in Gaza indeed restored the public's sense of security and lowered the anxiety level, yet Lieberman is perceived as the man who will know how to do what needs to be done so that no more missiles land around here, " she wrote.
CNN: Israeli politician riding 'wave of resentment' ahead of vote
On the international front Mr Erdogan is raising eyebrows for more than his (understandable) loss of enthusiasm for the EU. He has also attracted unfavourable attention for his virulent attacks on Israel, especially during its war in Gaza, and for his budding friendships with Iran and Sudan.
One of Northern Ireland's most picturesque areas is considering twinning with war-torn Gaza City.
He also continues to report from the field, most notably covering the Israel-Hezbollah war from both Gaza and Jerusalem in 2014.
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