With 98% of votes from Tuesday’s elections counted, most Israeli media outlets were reporting that incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will retain his seat for an unprecedented 5th term as his Likud party won 35 seats in the 21st Knesset and parties winning sufficient seats to form a majority government pledged to support his continued premiership. The Blue and White party led by former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz also won 35 seats, but has insufficient support from smaller parties to form a majority.

Israeli officials were among the first to thank US President Donald Trump Monday following the State Department’s designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization, although Iranian officials denounced the designation as a “vicious” as well as “idiotic” mistake by the US. “The IRGC is the Iranian government’s primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign,” Trump said in a statement.

The movement to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Israel suffered another defeat on Tuesday when the Internet-based hospitality network Airbnb announced that it is cancelling a decision announced earlier this year to de-list available properties in Jewish communities in the West Bank. The announcement follows a settlement in a discrimination suit brought against Airbnb in the US State of Delaware, where it is incorporated, by the Shurat Hadin legal NGO.

Diplomatic tensions between Turkey and its NATO allies increased this week following the publication of a New York Times Op-Ed by the leadership of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees declaring that “By the end of the year, Turkey will have either F-35 advanced fighter aircraft on its soil or a Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile defense system. It will not have both.” Despite the stark warning, Turkish officials were standing their ground, declaring that the purchase by the Turkish military of the S-400 air defense system from Russia is a “done deal” that they will not back down from.

It was an ugly election, this one, uglier than most because it was so non-ideological: so little about issues, and so much about personalities.  The price of running a divisive and ugly personal  campaign is that it leaves a stain, and makes it that much more difficult  – though perhaps not impossible – to try to unite the country when it’s all over, as Netanyahu began trying to do in his early morning victory speech.

The Pentagon recently published a comprehensive assessment of the Iraq War and its aftermath. Its findings have implications for Department of Defense force planning and current policy in the Middle East in a wide range of areas. The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington DC recently hosted a panel discussion on the reports findings.

God promised that He would bring back the Jewish people to the land of Israel from all over the earth and plant them in their land. This is your opportunity to help new immigrants as they come to Israel by partnering with us as we actively step in and provide for a variety of needs.