Tzipi Livni Takes Off-Road Jeep Challenge
Tzipi Livni figures that if she can’t be queen of the Knesset, then maybe she can be queen of the desert. In a bold and rather unexpected move, the former Kadima leader and member of Knesset has joined the Desert Queens off-road competition for Israeli women.
According to a report in The Times of Israel, Desert Queens is a women-only adventure competition, whereby 40 Israeli women challenge themselves by driving through exotic locations by jeep. Livni landed recently in India to practice her off-road driving for this year’s competition.
Apparently, the politician’s interest in Desert Queens was piqued back in 2010, and at that time she asked the event’s producers to save her a future spot in one of the jeeps. In addressing the group that participated that year, Livni reportedly praised the competition for “combin[ing] everything women weren’t expected to do.”
This time, the women are in for a challenging trek — 4 women to a jeep — across rivers and up mountains. They will sleep in the homes of Indian families, eat local cuisine and learn about local customs.
Once the other participants got over their initial surprise at seeing Livni, wearing her orange team t-shirt, among them (she passed the application screening just like everyone else), they reportedly were happy to have her among them.
It seems Livni tried to keep this all under wraps for as long as possible. On her way to India, she cryptically — and somewhat apologetically — wrote (in Hebrew) on her Facebook page: “Dear friends, I am outside Israel, and due to communication problems, I won’t be able to write regularly these days. I’ll try to make up for the gap.”
Don’t worry about it, Tzipi. You go girl!
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!