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Main Israeli negotiatorsKey Israeli politicians and negotiators featuring in The Palestine PapersLast Modified: 23 Jan 2011 20:46 GMT

Tzipi Livni

Role:Former Israeli foreign minister; current opposition leader and head of Kadima party

Livni has served in the Knesset (Israeli parliament)since1999. She has held a variety of cabinet posts, including

stints as housing minister, agriculture minister and justiceminister.

She was the foreign minister and Israel's lead negotiatorduring the key years covered by The Palestine Papers.She represented the Israeli government during dozens ofmeetings before and after the Annapolis conference,usually appearing with Tal Becker, her senior adviser.

Livni lost her post as foreign minister in 2009; her Kadimaparty won the most seats in Israel's parliamentaryelections, but failed to assemble a governing coalition. Shehas been serving as Israel's opposition leader since then.

Livni was born in Tel Aviv. She served for a time in Israel'sMossad spy agency, then left to attend law school; she practiced commercial law for a decade before enteringpolitics.

Ehud Olmert

Role:Former Israeliprime minister

Olmert was the prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009,when many of the key events described in the PalestinePapers took place. He spent much of his professionalcareer in politics: Olmert was first elected to the Knesset in

1973 and remained a member for 20 years, rising throughthe ranks of the Likud party. He then served two terms asthe mayor of Jerusalem before returning to the Knesset in2003 and assuming the post of prime minister in 2006.

His domestic popularity remained quite low for much of histime as prime minister. His handling of the 2006 Lebanonwar was deeply unpopular in Israel; tens of thousands ofpeople staged a rally in 2007 to demand his resignation. Hewas also dogged by persistent allegations of corruption, forwhich he was eventually indicted after leaving office.

Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister, was Israel's main negotiator during Olmerts time in office. Olmert himself appears

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in only a handful of these documents, mostly in notes preceding or following his one-on-one meetings with MahmoudAbbas, the Palestinian president.

Udi Dekel

Role:Former head of the Israeli Negotiations Unit under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

Dekel worked in the Prime Minister's Office to co-ordinate

the work of the negotiation team.

He helped with the formation of Israel's positions in thetalks and took part in several rounds of talks on a finalstatus agreement. Before his assignment to the OlmertAdministration as head of staff, Dekel served as the headof the Israel Defence Forces Strategic Planning Division.

After his tenure at the prime minister's office, he was highlycritical of the negotiating tactics of Olmert and Livni in theirdealings with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authoritypresident, and Ahmed Qurei, the head of Abbas'negotiating team.

The Palestine Papers reveal that Dekel has been trying toshift the 1967 borders as a baseline for the negotiations,due to new "facts on the ground" that were created as an answer to a "terror war" that was launched by thePalestinians.

Amos Gilad

Role:Former head of the Israeli defence ministry's political-security branch and Israel's caretaker co-ordinator in theoccupied territories.

Gilad was said to enjoy more influence over Israeligovernment policy than many of those who outranked him

in the government hierarchy.

Before his appointment at the defence ministry, he servedas the director of the research division of the Israeli army'sintelligence branch and also as army spokesman.

In his side role as Israel's special envoy to Egypt, he wasalso intimately involved in talks over the fate of captiveIsraeli soldier Gilad Shalit. He was briefly suspended fromthat position in February 2009 after he criticised Olmert,claiming that the prime minister was hindering efforts tofree Shalit.

The Palestine Papers show that Gilad, who continues to serve the Israeli government as an adviser to Ehud Barak,the defence minister, held multiple conversations with Palestinian Authority negotiators on the situation in Gaza prioto the 2008-2009 war.

Tal Becker

Role:Senior adviser to Tzipi Livni

Becker was Tzipi Livnis senior policy adviser from 2006through 2009, and almost always accompanied her tomeetings with Palestinian negotiators.

Becker is a lawyer who spent much of his career working

for the Israeli government: He is a former lawyer at the

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Source: Al Jazeera

Israeli mission to the United Nations, and a former directorof the international law department at the Israeli foreignministry. He was involved in negotiations during both theOslo Accords and the Camp David summit.

Becker speaks far less often than Livni in the PalestinePapers, and his comments are usually clarifications interpretations of international law, or details from pastnegotiations. The documents give the impression of aninfluential behind-the-scenes figure with a limited "public"role in meetings with Palestinians.

He does occasionally weigh in on substantive issues,discussing at one point the need for two states: "Divided.All Israeli. All Palestinian," he said.

Tal Becker was born in France, but spent most of his childhood in Australia.

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