NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Thursday commended Israel for its attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon, even though the Beresheet spacecraft failed to land on the moon.
“While NASA regrets the end of the SpaceIL mission without a successful lunar landing of the Beresheet lander, we congratulate SpaceIL, the Israel Aerospace Industries and the state of Israel on the incredible accomplishment of sending the first privately funded mission into lunar orbit,” Bridenstine said in a statement.
“Every attempt to reach new milestones holds opportunities for us to learn, adjust and progress. I have no doubt that Israel and SpaceIL will continue to explore and I look forward to celebrating their future achievements,” he added.

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}

A driving factor behind Brooklyn’s measles outbreak is the circulation of a magazine called PEACH (Parents Educating and Advocating for Children’s Health), a religious illustrated handbook that demonizes vaccines with alarming drawings and storylines.
Blima Marcus, an Orthodox Jewish nurse in Williamsburg, is trying to counteract PEACH with her own magazine (PIE, Parents Informed and Educated).
Marcus warns the situation is incredibly complex, with layers of cultural beliefs and deep-rooted concerns that could be intensified with a hard-line approach.
‘It’s not getting to the root of the problem,’ Marcus told Gothamist of the state of emergency Mayor De Blasio declared this week.

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.

Pages