Elections for Israel’s 21st Knesset were underway Saturday evening as voting began at IDF bases 72 hours before polls opened for the general public. The final polls released ahead of the elections last Friday showed a dead heat between the incumbent Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Blue and White party of Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid as Israelis received a flurry of last minute campaign ads on their phones, TVs and computers, as well as in the traditional print and radio media.

Officials with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps reacted with incandescent rage to reports over the weekend that the US is preparing to designate the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization. IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari declared that such a designation would be absurdly incorrect, adding “With this stupidity, the American army and security forces will no longer have today’s calm in the West Asia region.”

South African Foreign Minister Lindiwe Sisulu issued a statement last week that her government is downgrading ties with Israel, including by downgrading its diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv from an Embassy to a Liaison Office which “will have no political mandate, no trade mandate and no development cooperation mandate. It will not be responsible for trade and commercial activities. “The focus of the Liaison Office would be on consular and the facilitation of people-to-people relations.”

Beijing Capital International Airport, the globe’s second busiest, announced last week that it has selected a foreign object debris (FOD) detection system called RunWize, produced by Xsight Systems’, a hi-tech company based in Israel, to protect its runways. Boston Logan International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Ben-Gurion Airport and Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport are all already equipped with the system and others are reportedly looking into options for acquiring it.

Israel’s Water Authority reported on Sunday that the level of the Sea of Galilee rose 89 cm in March due to heavy rains which directly filled it as well as several streams and tributaries that flow into it. Additionally, the Dead Sea rose 3 cm amidst precipitation levels that were 131% of the multi-year national average. Israel’s longer and wetter than usual winter came even as several other countries in the Middle East and North Africa region are experiencing a severe and worsening long-term drought.

On 4 April, Ehud Yaari, Tal Shalev, and David Makovsky addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) think tank. Yaari is the Institute’s Lafer International Fellow and an award-winning commentator for Israeli television. Shalev is the chief political correspondent for the Israeli web portal Walla News. Makovsky is the Institute’s Ziegler Distinguished Fellow and director of its Project on Arab-Israel Relations.

The effort to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Israel suffered another defeat last Friday when Christian artists Nicole Mullen and Kathie Lee Gifford released a music video for their new song “The God Who Sees” which was filmed in Israel earlier this year. Both women expressed their hopes that the video would prompt Christians to visit the Land of the Bible to experience it first hand and develop a deeper appreciation for the Book.

Approximately one third of Israel’s some 180,000 Holocaust Survivors are impoverished, struggling with illness, or living alone. In 2009, ICEJ began a partnership with the local charity to provide a Home especially for lonely survivors. It offers attractive assisted-living facilities and a warm family environment. The Haifa Home continues to be a significant and vital project. It is a partnership in the true sense of the word, with a warm and trusting relationship existing between the Israeli staff, residents, volunteers, and the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.