Former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni has been struggling to gain traction in her newly announced Knesset bid while also working overtime to assemble an attractive line-up for her new party and win public financing for her campaign. With only five days left to unveil the list of candidates for her new party, Hatnuah ("The Movement"), Livni has invested significant time and energy to enlist political heavyweights and other big-wigs, both in and outside politics. She hopes a power team will win her a large chunk of the electorate, although for now polls show that her party is likely to grab only a handful of Knesset seats in the upcoming elections on Jan. 22. Livni, who resigned from the Knesset several months ago after losing the Kadima leadership to Shaul Mofaz, announced her candidacy last Tuesday, saying she was re-entering politics because she was concerned about Israel's future. Livni believes she is the only viable alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Despite her high profile as a former foreign minister and deputy to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, her candidacy has yet to catch fire. On Sunday, Livni's campaign got a much-needed boost when MK Meir Sheetrit became the seventh Kadima lawmaker to back her bid, which under campaign finance laws guarantees her campaign some NIS 9 million ($2.3 million) in public funding. Sheetrit joins MKs Yoel Hasson, Orit Zuaretz, Robert Tiviaev, Rachel Adato, Shlomo (Neguse) Molla and Majallie Whbee, who have all said they would defect from Kadima to join Hatnuah. Livni also tried to enlist Kadima MKs Nino Abesadze and Nachman Shai, to no avail (both are aligned with Labor). Livni has successfully courted former Labor leader Amram Mitzna, who will be second on her list. Former State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss declined her offer to join the party. Former head of the IDF Personnel Directorate Maj. Gen. (ret.) Elazar Stern, former Head the National Information Directorate Yoaz Hendel and Maariv columnist Ben-Dror Yemini have also been approached. On Sunday, Hendel and Stern indicated they were joining Livni, although Army Radio reported they have yet to decide on a specific party. Mitzna's change of allegiance elicited strong condemnation in his native Labor party. "Mitzna was dealt a crushing blow when he tried to be elected chairman once again last year; there is a long list of very good people who have turned down Livni's offers to partake in her failed political maneuver," the Labor party said in a statement over the weekend. "Livni has only managed to have the last of the leftovers and political losers join her." A Labor party official also called on Livni to forgo her independent run and "join [Labor Chairwoman] Shelly Yachimovich and jointly take on the task of removing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power." The Central Elections Committee published the list of parties on the ballot over the weekend. In the last elections, 33 parties were listed, but only 12 won enough votes to qualify for Knesset representation (parties must get at least 2 percent of the vote to be able to get Knesset seats). The deadline for submitting candidate lists is Thursday at 10 p.m.
.Among Livni's new recruits is Meirav Cohen, a member of the Jerusalem City Council and one of the founders of Awakening, a movement in Jerusalem committed to improving the lives of young people and pushing campaigns to limit the social and economic influence of the ultra-Orthodox sector in the capital city. Cohen, 29, played a leading role in the 2011 social justice movement and logged many hours in the protest tent it set up in Jerusalem.
