Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) is currently visiting Israel on a trip sponsored by the American Israel Educational Foundation, the charitable arm of AIPAC. 

At the airport on his way to Israel, Sen. Manchin bumped into Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick who was also heading to Israel on his own trade mission.

Times of Israel editor-in-chief David Horowitz briefed Sen. Manchin on the Israeli Palestinian conflict and the Iranian nuclear weapons threat.

Tal Becker, deputy legal advisor to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, gave Sen. Manchin a glimpse into the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Dinner with Einat Wilf, former Knesset member and advisor to Shimon Peres, at a restaurant in Yemin Moshe.

View of the Old City of Jerusalem from Sen. Manchin’s hotel.

Sen. Manchin attended Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Sen. Manchin also visited the Western Wall.

Breakfast with Omer Bar Lev, a leader of the Labor opposition party in Israel.

Touring the Old City of Jerusalem.

Meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah

Meeting with Dr. Harold Vinegar, chief scientist of Israeli Energy Initiatives at Genie Energy, and Binyamin Zomer of Noble Energy, to discuss the importance of energy to the economies of Israel, the United States, and West Virginia.

Presentation of the Arrow missile defense system

Meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, to discuss Iran, peace talks, and Syria.

Touring the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. A neighborhood of 40,000 Jews that is designated as a ‘settlement’ by the international community.

Briefing from Brigadier General Nitzan Nuriel.

Meeting with Israeli tech entrepreneurs to hear more about the ‘Start-Up Nation’.  Meeting included Tzameret Feurst, CEO of Circ Medtech which is successfully fights AIDS around the world, Gilad Gome, founder of MirOculus – a cancer diagnostics company, and Dr. Kira Radnitsky – founder of SalesPredict.

In the north of Israel

Visiting with injured Syrians being treated in Israel

Meeting with Danny Lacker of the Israel Water Authority and Yossie Sandek of WaterSheer

Visiting the Yemin Orde Youth Village

Cherry Picking in the Golan

Visiting the border between Israel and Syria

Dinner at Decks overlooking Lake Kinneret

Briefing from Dr Emily Landau, senior research associate at the Institute of National Security in Tel Aviv, on the Iranian nuclear talks

Rooftop of the Azrieli Center in Tel Aviv with views of Ashkelon and Haifa