Thousands of Israelis attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Wednesday night – its first conference in Israel. Many of those attending came specifically to hear conservative media personality and Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro, who delivered the keynote speech. Other speakers included former Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt and other Trump administration officials but the main draw seemed to have been Shapiro, with the seats only filling up prior to his speech. Shapiro spoke about a wide variety of topics, including why US-style conservatism hasn’t taken off in Israel, saying that Israel’s success despite being a “welfare state” is the reason for that. “All politics is oppositional,” he said.

President Joe Biden’s Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides landed in Israel early Monday morning, ten months after Biden entered office. Nides posted a video expressing his excitement about his new position and said he will be residing in Jerusalem. According to a diplomatic source quoted by The Jerusalem Post, he will be living in a rented home and not at the US-owned building on Agron Street which previously served as a consulate for Palestinians. Former ambassador David Friedman lived at the Agron Street building in the last months of his position after the former ambassador’s home in Herzliya Pituach was sold as part of the embassy’s move to Jerusalem under former President Donald Trump.

A video has come to light of two Lev Tahor members praising the state of Israel, a stark departure from their usual vehement anti-Israel and anti-Zionist rhetoric and quite risky since they currently are engaging in efforts to reach Israel’s archenemy Iran. Uriel Goldman, who is now in the Kurdistan area along with two other cult members, is seen in the video praising Israel for its behavior during its recent war with Gaza and in previous operations, when the Israeli army does everything it can to avoid harming civilians. The Zoom video was recorded shortly after Operation Guardian of the Walls, which took place in May.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was forced to spend Shabbos in Washington after his meeting with Biden was delayed until Friday in the wake of the suicide bombing in Afghanistan that killed 13 US service members and at least 169 Afghans. The consul and staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington organized everything needed for Shabbos in the Willard Intercontinental Hotel near the White House, where Bennett was staying, including hadlakos neiros, davening and Shabbos meals. They borrowed a Sefer Torah for Shabbos from Chabad of Rockville.

Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman posted yet another provocative video on social media on Sunday, blasting all yeshivos due to the Peleg protestors who caused traffic jams in Jerusalem last Sunday. Liberman, knowing very well that the protests were carried out by a tiny minority of the Chareidi community, claimed that just as the protests are intolerable, the “Chareidi committee” in the Finance Committee is intolerable, referring to the fact that Degel H’Torah chairman Moshe Gafni is the head of the Finance Committee. Liberman went on to make false statements that the “Chareidi committee” allots huge sums to yeshivos, taking the money from other areas like welfare, education and health and leaving no money to pay lone soldiers.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday afternoon announced the German Government is going to provide supplmental assistance to Holocaust survivors.
“We have been holding contacts with the German government on giving supplemental assistance to Holocaust survivors; this is in addition to the assistance supplements that we are giving.