Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is currently in New York City and plans to participate in the United Nations opening ceremony and in protests against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. According to Haaretz, Livni plans to propose a set of criteria to the UN general assembly that would set rules for participation in democratic elections. Livni’s proposed standards would exclude the participation of terrorist groups.
Livni hopes to gain international recognition of the standards, which she created as part of Israel’s attempt to learn from the Hamas victory in the 2006 Palestinian Authority elections. Hamas won 76 of 132 available seats in 2006, while the rival Fatah terrorist group won 43 and other terrorist groups won many of the remaining seats.