Q& A: Tzipi Livni, Israeli Foreign Minister

You grew up in a hard-line Likud household?

Today was the memorial for my father. I just came from the graveyard. On his gravestone is written, "Here lies the Head of Operations of the Irgun -- the underground that fought for the establishment of the State of Israel." And on his tombstone he left us the map of Greater Israel -- with both sides of the Jordan Valley being part of Israel.

Many ask if territorial compromise is against my father's ideology, and I say he taught me to believe in a democratic Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people where all people enjoy equal rights. I came to the conclusion that I cannot implement all of my ideology. I have to choose and my choice was to implement the ideology of a homeland for the Jewish people with equal rights to all the minorities in the land of Israel, but [the homeland will be ] only in part of the land of Israel.

You decided you can't rule over another people?

It's against my values.

Did you have an intellectual journey from right to left?

I decided to enter politics in 1995 and in my first TV interview I said I accept the idea of dividing the land, but I believe that it is important to do it the right way. . . . But I thought Labor did it the wrong way with Oslo and Camp David. I opposed Oslo because it postponed the hard core of the conflict -- final status issues. I believed from the beginning that the idea of a two-state solution provides an answer to those who live in Israel and those who live outside. The right of return is answered.

What is the legacy of Ariel Sharon?

Israelis believe that Sharon is doing the right thing for Israeli security. . . . When he made the disengagement decision, it was said that at the end of 2005 there would be no Jews in Gaza. It was a difficult operation to take these people out of their homes. I thought about it a few days ago and realized that we did it -- there are no Jews in Gaza.

We made the decision in June 2004 and by 2005, it was over. Yet it has affected Israeli society -- there are some wounds that we should heal. It was not simple to take this decision.

I arranged the first meeting between Ariel Sharon and the settlers. They sat with him and spoke only of their personal tragedies -- one spoke of his son who could not sleep at night; another spoke of his daughter and said she was supposed to get married in July, which was during the disengagement. Another spoke of his farm and his cows and where should he live. And we sat there, and Sharon sat there, and some cried and we all had tears in our eyes.

How was Sharon?