Israel News for 4-17-19

Final Results
The final election results (for real this time) were released yesterday and presented to President Rivlin. In the end, Likud dropped from 36 to 35 seats and UTJ gained moved up from 7 to 8. It doesn’t change the overall balance of power between left and right, with the right wing block holding 65 seats and the left 45 (or 55 if you include the Arab parties).

Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked’s New Right party did not manage to cross the minimum threshold to enter the Knesset, despite their complaints of voting irregularities. Shaked announced that she’s quitting politics, at least for the time being.

President Rivlin will give PM Netanyahu the green light to form a new government, and the PM will have 42 days to do so. He is expected to hand out around 26 ministerial portfolios to satiate his coalition partners, which will make for one of the largest governments ever. But just a few of those portfolios will probably end up going to members of his own Likud party.

Avigdor Lieberman has pledged his Yisrael Beytenu’s 5 seats to join the PM’s coalition. But one of the main points of his party’s platform is to do away with IDF draft exemptions for yeshiva students, and the 16 seat strong Shas-UTJ ultra orthodox block will never let that happen. So how will they all coexist in a coalition? They’ve managed to do it in the past.

New Map
The US government has published a new map of Israel which, for the first time, includes the Golan as part of Israel. The map shows the West Bank as territory occupied by Israel.

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Heart Print
Israeli scientists have printed a living heart using a 3D printer. The technology was developed by Dr. Nadav Nur and Dr. Assaf Shapira working at the life science lab of Prof. Dvir at Tel Aviv University in cooperation with the faculty of engineering and the Segol biotechnical center. They say that the technology will be widely available for use in 10 years.

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