Israel’s Central Elections Committee released the final results of Tuesday’s elections at midnight on Friday, following a day of delays, malfunctions, and recriminations.
The returns were slow in coming due to computer issues, which were initially falsely rumored to be the result of a cyber attack.
The final results were not markedly different from those previously reported, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party rising one mandate to 36 seats and the Haredi party United Torah Judaism falling one seat to seven in total, according to the Israeli news site Mako.

Finance Minister and Kulanu chairman Moshe Kahlon is conducting advanced negotiations for the unification of Kulanu and the Likud party to act as one faction in the 21st Knesset.
Kahlon will continue to hold the Finance Ministry portfolio and will receive another portfolio as well in the new government.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

The US government this week denied entry to Omar Barghouti, the leader of the Palestinian-led boycott movement against Israel, according to a Washington-based advocacy group who claimed the travel ban was retribution for his political activities.
Barghouti, a co-founder of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement, possessed a valid US visa, and the required Israel-issued travel documents, the institute said.
Israel has barred Barghouti from leaving the county a number of times in recent years, by refusing to renew travel documents granted to Palestinian residents of Israel who do not have full citizenship.
Read more at Times of Israel.
{Matzav.com}

Recent visitors to Woodbury Common may have been exposed to the measles after a New York City resident with a confirmed case of measles visited the mega shopping area, according to the Orange County Health Department.
The infected person visited the shopping area between the hours of 4 to 9 p.m. on Sunday, March 31, the department said in a news release.
Areas the person visited included Nike Factory Store and Sayki Men’s Fashion Store, they added.
Read more.
{Matzav.com}

Yahadut HaTorah (UTJ), which was celebrating its growth to eight Knesset seats in the elections this week, is now feeling pressure as the latest count appears to move its eighth seat to the Meretz party.
UTJ is now just a few dozen votes shy of that eighth seat, which had previously seemed safe, as the Central Elections Committee is coping with a spate of irregularities in the reported votes.
The party which is benefiting at UTJ’s expense is the far-left Meretz party, the Kikar Hashabbat website reported.

Israel’s Central Election Committee chairman Hanan Meltzer said Thursday evening that results would be posted on the Knesset website “by midnight,” adding that while the figures released would be accurate, they could still be subject to updates.
“I wish to stress that we did not find any irregularities in the system or in the counts of the votes,” he said.
Based on consultations with security officials, Meltzer added that there was no suspicion of a foreign origin cyber attack.
The final total will be posted by April 17, when it is to be handed over to Israel’s president for review.

Israeli spacecraft Beresheet made its final maneuver ahead of a planned descent to the moon on Thursday, which, if successful, will propel Israel into an elite group of countries that have mastered the lunar landing.
The unmanned robotic lander dubbed Beresheet – Hebrew for the biblical phrase “in the beginning” – has traveled through space for seven weeks in a series of expanding orbits around Earth before crossing into the moon’s gravity last week.
The final maneuver brought the spacecraft into a tight elliptical orbit around the moon, just 15-17 kilometeres from the surface at its closest. The landing is set to begin late on Thursday, with touchdown expected around 3:30 pm ET, the Israeli space team said.

The Ministry of Health has ordered the vaccination of all the aircrews of El Al Airlines in a process that began this Thursday.
This was the result of a measles case discovered last week at the company that led to the hospitalization of a 43-year-old flight attendant in a serious condition.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

Kim Jong Un said North Korea should prove its self-reliance and deliver a “telling blow” to the hostile foreign forces who mistakenly believe sanctions will bring his country to its knees.
The comments, reported by state media Thursday, represent Kim’s first official, defiant response to the breakdown of the second U.S.-North Korea summit in February, and were delivered to a plenary session of officials from the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.
They also come as South Korean President Moon Jae-in is due to meet President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday, as he tries to find a way to mediate between the United States and North Korea and restart a stalled dialogue.