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Australia’s political opposition hopes to harness momentum from the Irish gay marriage referendum after it proposed a law Monday that would recognize same-sex marriages, something the country’s conservative prime minister is against. Center-left Labor Party leader Bill Shorten became the first leader of a major Australian political party to back a bill to overturn a national ban on gay marriage. Gay rights advocates fear that government lawmakers will be reluctant to support the bill as such a law would be seen as a political victory for Shorten over Prime Minister Tony Abbott, a former Roman Catholic seminarian and a staunch...

Despite winning the majority of incoming MKs' support to form the next government, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continues to face suspicions he will abandon them for the Left. Likud, Jewish Home, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Kulanu, and Yisrael Beytenu all recommended Netanyahu for the task - giving him a total of 67 MKs in his possible coalition. Still, MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) fears Netanyahu may take the President's mandate and instead of forming a narrow right-wing government, create a broad unity government. "We are opposed to a unity government. The nation made a definite choice," Shaked said during an...

Zionist Union’s No. 2 drops bombshell 12 hours before election; Netanyahu, Herzog accuse each other of ‘panicking’. The Zionist Union’s Tzipi Livni announced Monday evening that she would give up the rotation of the premiership with the slate’s leader, Isaac Herzog, an agreement the two made months ago when her Hatnua party merged with his Labor Party. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign up! In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the party was “panicking,” while Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett...

Jerusalem (AFP) - Three days ahead of Israel's general election, there was growing uncertainty Saturday over who will win the premiership, with polls showing incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu trailing his centre-left rivals. The final two surveys released Friday night by private television channels gave the Zionist Union, headed by Labour leader Isaac Herzog, a four-seat lead over Netanyahu's Likud. A poll by Channel 10 showed Likud winning 20 seats, compared with 24 for the Zionist Union, while a survey issued by Channel 2 also showed Likud four seats behind, 22 to 26. The results echoed surveys released earlier Friday -- the...

Isaac Herzog has maintained a lead in opinion polls but winning the election is not enough to become prime minister When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose to dissolve his government last November and call for new elections he didn’t expect a formidable challenge from the Labor party leader Isaac Herzog. Herzog is the closest thing Israel has to a patrician politician. His father, Chaim Herzog, was an Israeli army general and the sixth president of Israel and his grandfather was the first chief rabbi of Ireland. And while the 54-year-old Isaac Herzog has served four times as a government...

THE ABC is trying to destroy Tony Abbott. Its bias — actually unlawful — has never been so ruthless. Even the ABC’s hand-picked reviewer had to admit this week that the ABC’s coverage of the Abbott Government’s first Budget was marred by anti-Liberal bias — and she hadn’t even looked hard. Colleen Ryan, a former Fairfax editor, had been asked by the ABC to check its reporting of the Budget in the week after it was delivered. This Budget was the country’s first and best hope of reining in Labor’s massive deficits. If it wasn’t a make-or-break moment for the...

Despite essentially boycotting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress by planning to be abroad when it takes place, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday met with another Israeli official. Biden and Opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog, head of the Labor party, met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The Likud party was incensed at the meeting between Herzog and Biden, which also came as leaders from the left, including Herzog himself, were busy attacking Netanyahu and blaming him for Biden’s boycott of the speech. “Buji’s behavior in Munich is an irresponsible crossing of red lines,” the party...

JERUSALEM (AP) — When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved his unwieldy coalition and called new elections last month, he appeared almost certain to be returned once more to office. But a new center-left alliance has surged past his Likud party in the polls, turning the March 17 contest into a toss-up. After joining forces with former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to create a joint grouping they call "The Zionist Camp," Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog is looking, to increasingly many Israelis, like a viable alternative to Netanyahu. He promises to reverse the country's slide toward international isolation and corrosive social...

<p>President Barack Obama will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he travels to Washington in March, the White House said Thursday, one day after being caught off-guard by Republicans' invitation for the Israeli leader to address a joint session of Congress.</p>

Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog has vowed to shut down the World Zionist Organization's Settlement Division, which functions as an operational arm of the government to build and establish communities and infrastructures in Judea and Samaria - leaving hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the region without governmental representation. "As Prime Minister I will close the Settlement Division and open it later to serve the Negev and the Galilee," Herzog stated during an interview on "Meet the Press" Saturday night. "We see again and again the same group takes over the interests of the state and Netanyahu gave in to it."...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the nation on Tuesday night shortly after 8 p.m., less than two hours after firing coalition members Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua), effectively disbanding the government. "I turn to you tonight because in the current situation, in the current government, it is impossible to lead the nation," said Netanyahu, saying the impasse is preventing him from fulfilling his role as prime minister. While Netanyahu called it "one of the best governments, one of the most stable governments in the history of Israel," adding it was "a true unity...

PM says he took a 'personal risk' firing Lapid and Livni, but said they had made it impossible to govern; calls for snap elections. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the nation on Tuesday night shortly after 8 p.m., less than two hours after firing coalition members Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua), effectively disbanding the government. "I turn to you tonight because in the current situation, in the current government, it is impossible to lead the nation," said Netanyahu, saying the impasse is preventing him from fulfilling his role as prime minister. While Netanyahu...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni on Tuesday let loose at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the impending elections will "not be over zero value added tax," but over replacing a government she accused of "extremism, provocativeness and paranoia" without knowing how to fight terror while also "upholding freedom and Zionism."

ustice Minister Tzipi Livni, head of the Hatnua party, welcomed on Tuesday evening President Reuven Rivlin’s criticism of the controversial Jewish State Law. Rivlin, who spoke at a conference earlier Tuesday, said, "The State of Israel is the national state of the Jewish people. A small, abhorred minority, undermine this fact, both from within our own and from outside, and so, we must ask ourselves seriously, what is the point of the proposed law - Israel: The National State of the Jewish People." "Does the promotion of this law, not in fact, question the success of the Zionist enterprise in...

Justice Minister tells US secretary of state that his one week truce proposal would strengthen extremists in region. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) told US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday that his proposal for a week long cease-fire of Israel's Gaza campaign was "completely unacceptable" and that it "would have strengthened extremists in the region." The justice minister told Israel Radio on Sunday that over the course of the day on Friday, Kerry's proposal had improved. By Friday afternoon, just before Shabbat, the security cabinet unanimously rejected Kerry's proposal which the ministers believed did not sufficiently ensure either...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni sharply criticized Economics Minister Naftali Bennett Monday, after the Jewish Home party leader remarked at a faction meeting that a Palestinian state would "crush" the Israeli economy. "The Economics Minister must decide if he represents the Israeli people, or just the residents of isolated settlements," Livni insisted. "In these trying times, when both left-wing and right-wing businessmen are deeply concerned about the future of the Israeli economy, the person in charge of that economy actually prefers to listen to extremist Rabbis," Livni claimed. "The role of a responsible, Zionist leader is not to side with policies...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who is heading the Israeli team for peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, said Sunday that Israel should ignore the terrorists who carried out the bus bombing in Bat Yam and continue with the peace process. Livni, who spoke at a special conference marking Quality Government Day, said that the Palestinian Authority with whom she is negotiating is not behind the terror attack. "Those who tried to harm us today are not those with whom we are conducting or will conduct negotiations," she insisted. “We will not allow criminal terrorists to determine Israel's future. Israel continues...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni warned on Monday that Israel runs the risk of a European economic boycott if it fails to advance peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. "You cannot deal only with economic issues and ignore the political issue and the importance of a two-state solution," she told delegates at an accountancy conference in Eilat, according to AFP. "Europe is boycotting products. And, true, it is starting with the settlements but their problem is with Israel, which is perceived as a colonial state, so it won't only stop with the settlements, but will (reach) Israel as a whole," warned...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni fears the potential disaster facing Israel if nothing is done to combat the European boycott of Israeli goods, she told an accountant's conference in Eilat on Monday. "If we do not take action regarding the European boycott of goods coming from the settlement areas, the boycott will eventually extend to all of Israel," Livni warned. Livni claimed that some European countries see Israel as a colonizing nation, and this has affected economic relations with those countries. Recently the fast food chain McDonald's made headlines for refusing to allow its restaurant to be built in an up-and-coming...

Delaying the so-called “two-state solution” is an historical mistake, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni claimed on Monday. Livni, who is in charge of the peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, spoke at the American Jewish Committee 2013 Global Forum in Washington, D.C. She warned in her speech of “devastating consequences” for Israel in case U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s latest attempt to renew peace talks fails. “Time is working against those who believe that two states is the only Zionist way to maintain our identity,” Livni said. “There are those who want to postpone this decision, but it would be...