Livni Struggles to Keep Leadership of Weakened Kadima JERUSALEM - Tzipi Livni was fighting for her political future on Tuesday in a tough race to retain the leadership of her weakening Kadima Party. The ruling party from 2006 to 2009, Kadima's period in opposition since has been lackluster under Ms. Livni, 53, and given the strong support for the current right-leaning, Likud-led government and the advent of new political alternatives, the race between her and the former military chief and defense minister Shaul Mofaz, 63, generated little excitement. "So what distinguishes Livni and Mofaz when it comes to matters of foreign affairs, defense, social and economic policy and constitutional issues?" asked the political writer Yossi Verter in Tuesday's Haaretz newspaper. Between you and me, I would say not much does, and it's probably not every important anyway. Both were once Likud ministers, and both were lured to Kadima at its founding in 2005 by Israel's longtime leader Ariel Sharon, shortly before the major stroke that left him comatose. With attention in Israel and Washington focused on how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions, Ms. Livni's flagship policy for Kadima - a negotiated peace with the Palestinians on the basis of a two-state solution - has seemed increasingly irrelevant. Kadima, which drew from both left and right, has some 95,000 members and counts the most seats in the Parliament, but recent polls indicate that it has lost about half its strength, making it just another contender in the crowded field of Israeli politics. Analysts have increasingly questioned the cohesiveness of the party. Some predict that after the primary race, the party may split. The current Israeli government bent more leftward than many here had expected, endorsing the two-state solution in principle and agreeing to a 10-month freeze in settlement construction, said Abraham Diskin, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The freeze expired in September 2010, and the Palestinians have refused to return to negotiations without a new settlement moratorium. "The majority of Israelis believe that the Palestinians are responsible for the lack of progress," Mr. Diskin said, adding, "That only increases the popularity of the government and decreases that of Kadima." In articles appealing to the voters by Mr. Mofaz and Ms. Livni that ran side-by-side in Tuesday's Yediot Aharonot newspaper, neither mentioned the peace process. In the 2009 elections, after her predecessor as Kadima's leader, Ehud Olmert, resigned as prime minister amid a deepening corruption probe, the party won 28 seats to Likud's 27. But Ms. Livni could not manage to put together a coalition and then refused to join Mr. Netanyahu's government, for which critics inside and outside the party continue to take her to task. Ms. Livni argues that she has been blamed for standing by the principles that brought her to prominence in the first place, or in other words, for not being a typical Israeli politician. "I stood by the principles that are important to you," she wrote in Yediot Aharonot. For those principles, I went into opposition instead of taking a job in the Netanyahu government. Ms. Livni echoed the belief of many analysts and commentators here that Mr. Mofaz would be more likely to join a Netanyahu-led government, saying that a Kadima under Mr. Mofaz would turn into "Likud B" and a fig-leaf for Mr. Netanyahu. Mr. Mofaz has denied that. Mr. Mofaz said that a Kadima under his leadership would focus on a fundamental correction of the social agenda in Israel. Ms. Livni has also been criticized for her political absence during last summer's huge social justice protests when hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrated for affordable housing and against the high cost of living. In any case, the center-left Labor Party, under its recently elected leader, Shelly Yacimovich, is already far more identified with the social struggle in Israel. The political center also has a new contender. Yair Lapid, a popular television host whose father was a well-known politician and journalist, announced in January that he was entering politics. Although he has not yet formed a party, polls have indicated that it would drain votes away from Kadima.