“Nothing can explain his staying in the government except his personal desire to be defense minister. He gives a stamp of approval to the wrong things, things that were never connected to the Labor Party,” said opposition chairwoman and Knesset member Tzipi Livni about former Prime Minister Ehud Barak in an interview on May 22, 2009, to then journalist Yair Lapid on Channel 2 after the formation of Netanyahu’s government.
“So long as I am in the government, the dangerous ideas will not be carried out,” Justice Minister Livni said about Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett in an interview with Channel 2 on May 23 in the midst of a crisis in the diplomatic negotiations with the Palestinians.