by KYW's Mideast Bureau chief Jay Bushinsky

Foreign minister Tzipi Livni believes she will be Israel's next prime minister.  The svelte blonde lawyer-turned-diplomat is the frontrunner in her Kadima party's primary, and some of the polls say she will beat the opposition Likud party's former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Livni (in file photo above) is optimistic but guarded:

"According to the polls, and I know the polls are not something we can rely on, especially in Israel, but it looks like Kadima is going to win also in elections, if I'm the head and the leader of Kadima."

Livni has been negotiating with the Palestinian Authority on the establishment of a Palestinian state between Israel and Jordan.  She says UN Security Council resolution #1701, which ended the second Lebanon War, is being violated by Syria and the Lebanese government.  She told the foreign press association here that the Hizbollah guerillas are getting stronger due to arms deliveries funded by Iran:

"We can see that the arms embargo according to Resolution #1701 is not being enforced by the Lebanese government; it is being violated by Syria and Iran."