Nitzan Horowitz announced his intention to run for election to Israel’s largest city, Tel Aviv, against the incumbent Ron Huldai.

Horowitz, of the left of centre Meretz party, is the country’s only openly gay Member of the Israeli Knesset (MK), a post he intends to resign if elected to the be the mayor of Tel-Aviv.

His annoncement yesterday (6 May) pits the 49 year-old Horowitz against Labor’s Huldai in the 22 October elections.

If he wins, he would become Tel Aviv’s first openly gay mayor, and the first in any Israeli city or the Middle East.

The couple, blonde beauty Chen Arizona and her husband, whose identity was not revealed, were cheered by Israeli celebrities, friends and family.

The wedding was televised by Israel’s Channel 2 evening news and watched throughout the country.

Arizona who runs a salon near Tel Aviv, was born Erez Yisraelof, one of four siblings, into a traditional Orthodox Jewish family.

Tel Aviv’s International LGBT film festival, known as TLVFest, barely survived an attempt by the Israeli ministry of culture to shut it down.

While TLVFest has for now been saved, Yair Hochner, its founder and director, told Gay Star News, it faces funding discrimination which threatens its future.

TLVFest is the Middle East and one of Asia’s largest LGBT film festivals and will celebrate its 8th anniversary in June 2013.

Following a statement by a religious right-wing electoral candidate that gay marriages will destroy the Jewish people, Meretz, a left wing Israeli party, performed mock gay marriages outside Tel-Aviv's rabbinical court.

The protests were lead by out gay Israeli MP Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) who also conducted several mock 'gay marriages', some of them marrying straight supporters of equality to their same-sex friends. 

The anti-gay statements were condemned across the Israeli political spectrum, ahead of Israel's general election next month.

Tel Aviv’s annual marathon has grown to become the country’s largest sporting event - over 30,000 runners are expected to take part in the 2013 event that will be held on 15 March.

Tel Aviv Police stated they have made a significant advancement in their investigation into the August 2009 shooting at the Bar Noar gay youth center that left two dead and 15 wounded.

The police, however, stated on Monday (17 December) that the development is not necessarily a breakthrough.

Tel Aviv Police chief, Aharon Aksol, said that he remains hopeful that the advancement could crack the case that has remained unsolved for the past three years.

A crowd of five hundred people gathered outside the Tel Aviv LGBT Task Force building in Meir Park on Saturday night to commemorate the third anniversary of the attack on a LGBT youth center in the city by a masked man.

The rally was attended by Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai and Nitzan Horovitz - the only openly gay member of the Knesset.

Speakers included Tzipi Livni, the former leader of the Kadima party and Judy Shepard, the mother of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard who was murdered in Wyoming in 2005.

I was intrigued to meet Joel Simkhai - born in Tel Aviv, Simkhai has lived most of his life in the US. Now in his mid-30s and residing in Los Angeles, Simkhai is the man who in 2009 launched a new mobile dating service called Grindr.

I’d arranged to meet Simkhai at London’s Strand Palace Hotel where he was saying. I arrived at the scheduled time but reception advised that he wasn’t in his room. He soon sent me a message on Grindr and I tracked him down in a corner of the lobby, wolfing down sushi between appointments.

While Sao Paulo may boast the biggest, Tel Aviv the hottest and New York the brashest, Berlin has the edge when it comes to mixing political activism with bawdy fun.

More than half a million are expected to pour into the German capital on 23 June for its annual pride parade and party, which they call Christopher Street Day (CSD) – named after the site of the infamous Stonewall riots in 60s New York.

GSN has readers all over the world and we know there are plenty of you shivering in the cold right now.

So all the more reason to bring a burst of sunshine into your day… this time with pictures of Tel Aviv’s Pride party in Israel.

Madonna kicked off her latest world tour in Israel yesterday (31 May) with an impassioned plea for peace in the Middle East.

The Material Girl paused between sets during her MDNA concert in Tel Aviv to tell her adoring fans to 'rise above their egos' and walk the road to peace.

'I chose to start my world tour in Isreal for a very specific and important reason,' the gay icon said.

'As you know, the Middle East and all the conflicts that occur here and that have been occurring for thousands of years, they have to stop.'

Tel Aviv has the honor of having been voted the best gay city in world and talking to Michelle Roberts from the tourist office we can see why.

'It’s very gay friendly, men and women can walk down the street holding their partners hand. No one blinks an eye, it’s very liberal and open,' she told us.