LAS VEGAS — A gathering of Republican presidential aspirants Saturday had all the ingredients for a Donald Trump pile-on.

Instead, it turned into a demonstration of the former president’s dominance in the race — and how swiftly his perceived missteps can be forgotten.

Of all the Republican presidential contenders who spoke at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference Saturday, Trump received the most sustained applause, with some in the crowd of over 1,000 people holding their iPhones aloft to get a picture of the former president.

He made no reference to comments he’d offered just two weeks ago criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and describing Hezbollah as “very smart” in the aftermath of the attacks in Israel that had killed 1,400. Nor did the crowd seem to fixate on them.

“People judge him for what he does,” said Matt Brooks, the RJC’s chief executive officer, referencing elements of Trump’s record like moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, “as opposed to the noise.”

Moments earlier, a more vivid illustration of the hold Trump has on the party came when his one-time vice president, Mike Pence, announced he was suspending his campaign. The former vice president had almost no money left and little chance of making the debate stage in less than two weeks. But his departure from the race, for many in the party, represented something larger than tactical hurdles: Proof that there was no reward for those who stood up to Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Trump, in his speech, didn’t even bother mentioning his vice president.

Instead, he acknowledged several of his supporters in attendance, including “Pawn Stars” host Rick Harrison. The former president is expected to have dinner Saturday night with Republican mega-donor Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson. The planned dinner was first reported by The Messenger.

“He’s got an incredible reservoir of goodwill in the Jewish community,” said Brooks. “He’s the frontrunner in a multicandidate field, and there are people supporting the other candidates as well. … But there’s no question, you saw by the response today, the strength of his support.”

Few, if any, politicians can swim through crises like Trump, who has survived more than a handful of episodes that pundits predicted would cause his political demise. But his primary campaign this go around has been defined less by political missteps (his legal troubles notwithstanding) than how he’s avoided them.

Trump has curtailed his media exposure, eschewed the stadium rallies that marked his earlier campaigns and refused to participate in either primary debate. His appearance at the RJC forum was notable not just because it came after his praise of Hezbollah’s fighting abilities but because he has so rarely been at events attended by his fellow candidates.

For Trump’s rivals, the confab was perhaps the last chance they would have to share a stage with the former president before the Iowa caucuses in January. And in the lead-up to it, there was anticipation of fireworks.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has emerged as one of Trump’s main rivals, took the hardest swings.

“As president, I will not compliment Hezbollah,” she said. “Nor will I criticize Israel’s prime minister in the middle of tragedy and war.”

Haley said the country couldn’t afford “four years of chaos, vendettas and drama” and implied that Trump wouldn’t be the party’s strongest general election candidate.

“Republicans,” she said, “need a candidate who can actually win.”

But others only took swipes more obliquely.

“We’re going to continue to have bad outcomes unless we change horses and have new people elected to leadership,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another Trump rival.

But there seemed to be little appetite in the room for attacks on the frontrunner. When former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has been the most outspoken in criticizing Trump, took the stage, he was booed.

Trump, for his part, stayed above the fray and did not hit his opponents. Instead, he used his speech to promote his record on defending Israel and to assail President Joe Biden’s Middle East policies, occasionally with blemishes and bravado. He said his administration had given Israel “sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” in reference to a proclamation he’d issued saying that the U.S. recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the area. He claimed he would have brought Iran into the Abraham Accords, the diplomatic framework he had used to normalize Arab nation relations with Israel, glossing over his record decrying diplomacy with the country.

The RJC gathering, held at the Venetian resort on the Las Vegas strip, comes at a critical time in the GOP primary. The non-Trump campaigns, predominantly DeSantis’, had looked at the period between Labor Day and the Iowa caucuses in mid-January as the time when ground could be gained on the former president.

But Trump’s lead has remained both steady and daunting. And his decision to avoid the debate stage had deprived his rivals of opportunities to directly challenge him.

The hope, among the non-Trump campaigns, has been that the field would winnow, allowing for a two- or three-person race. For that reason, Pence’s departure is likely to be seen as a positive development in some circles.

“They’ve got to beat each other before they can beat Trump. Trump is far and away in the lead, and so only one person will be challenging Trump, I presume, in a runoff. And so they need to get rid of their real competition before they face Donald Trump,” said Fred Zeidman, a major GOP donor in attendance who is backing Haley.

But the former vice president had very little share of the primary vote, according to the polls. And it’s unclear who will benefit from the suspension of his campaign. At least one prominent Republican used the announcement not to celebrate the possibility of a narrower field but to call on everyone else not named Trump to follow suit.

“I was surprised, but I think that’s the right move,” said Montana Sen. Steve Daines, the National Republican Senatorial Committee chair, who has endorsed Trump. “Because it’s clear President Trump is going to be the nominee for Republicans for president, and the sooner we coalesce around him the better it’s going to be.”

It increasingly looks like Israel has launched its much-anticipated ground invasion of Gaza — but officials won’t use the I-word to describe the campaign.

Speaking to his nation Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s fight against Hamas had entered “the second stage of the war” following a decision by the war cabinet to expand ground operations in Gaza. Standing alongside Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and unity government partner Benny Gantz, Netanyahu acknowledged that what comes next will be a long, hard-fought battle.

“This is our second independence war. We’re going to save our country,” he said.

But Daniel Hagari, a military spokesperson, later framed the operation more modestly to reporters, saying the Israel Defense Forces would be “gradually increasing its ground activity in the Gaza Strip and the scale of its forces.”

The careful wording belies reports of heavy fighting by relatively small IDF units who have pushed into Gaza, supported by tanks, helicopters and air strikes. While intense, the runs are not the massive invasion the IDF has positioned itself to launch and indicate the war might be fought in smaller, targeted engagements rather than a massive push through the densely populated enclave.

Israeli officials over the last 24 hours signaled that the incursion into northern Gaza will be the first step in a multi-part operation to dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities. “The campaign will continue until further notice,” Gallant said.

The Biden administration has studiously kept quiet since Israeli forces entered and stayed in Gaza on Friday afternoon. During a news conference as the move was underway, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby repeatedly declined to confirm that a new operation was happening, pointing reporters to official Israeli statements. Moments before those remarks, IDF spokesperson Maj. Nir Dinar told POLITICO that “there are forces inside Gaza as we speak.”

Much hangs in the balance: global perceptions of Israel as it wages urban warfare that further imperils civilians; the resiliency of Hamas, which has had years to booby trap the enclave it rules; the effectiveness of President Joe Biden’s plan to back Israel publicly while pushing for a more limited military operation privately; and the fate of 230 hostages held in Gaza.

The U.S. has asked that Israel not launch an all-out invasion, fearing that it risks hostages’ lives and could lead to a spike in civilian casualties. The opening moments of the apparent campaign seem more limited — though Israeli officials insist that the war will eventually expand.

Israeli officials internally and with foreign partners discussed the possibility of delaying a large ground invasion to negotiate more hostage releases. But Gallant pushed that idea aside: “As we hit the enemy harder, there’s a better chance that the enemy will agree to solutions to return the loved ones.”

Little is known about the operation so far. An increased rate of Israeli airstrikes took telecommunications in Gaza offline, Palestinian companies said, leading to a blackout that has made it hard for residents to connect and for humanitarian organizations to coordinate aid deliveries. Most of what is known comes from official statements by the Israel Defense Forces, which deny they’re responsible for the blackout.

“Since early Friday evening, combined combat forces of armor, combat engineers and infantry have been operating on the ground in the northern Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement Saturday morning. “As part of the operation, IDF soldiers identified terrorist cells attempting to launch anti-tank missiles and mortar shells and struck them. IDF soldiers also identified and destroyed a booby-trapped structure.”

The IDF also said it killed the head of Hamas’ Aerial Array, Asem Abu Rakaba, and Ratib Abu Tzahiban, commander of Hamas’ Naval Forces of the Gaza City Brigade. The military added that it had struck 150 tunnels and bunkers belonging to Hamas.

“What we are seeing now in Gaza is what is termed a ‘Reconnaissance Pull,’” said Mick Mulroy, formerly a top Pentagon official for the Middle East. “This tactic is applied to large unit formations in which small elements locate and rapidly exploit enemy weakness. Once the weakness, seams and gaps are discovered, they bring in the parts of the main body of the assault.”

“Over time, we could see the entire ground force in Gaza fully engaged in fighting Hamas by this effort,” Mulroy continued.

The former head of the U.S. Central Command, retired Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, said that purposeful movements into Gaza — as opposed to a full-scale invasion — also ensure the IDF doesn’t get stretched thin.

“This is an infantry fight,” he said. “A lot is going to be put on people on the ground, not just on the front lines, but behind the front lines, ensuring that you are secure [and] that Hamas is not going to pop up in your rear and attack your command posts, your medical aid stations and your all your logistics elements.”

Hamas is equipped with thousands of gallons of fuel that can be used for vehicles and rockets, ammunition, plenty of food and water and medicine — an indication of just how long it has had to prepare for a fight like this. Before this new phase, the Gaza health ministry claimed nearly 8,000 Palestinians had been killed during Israeli retributory strikes and the siege of Gaza, which followed Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that saw 1,400 Israelis slain.

In his own remarks Saturday, Gallant couched the operation in stark terms, saying, “This will not be a short war. It is a long war that will require us to be strong, as individuals, as a society, as leaders. Above all, our security forces will be strong. This is a war on our home. This is a war we didn’t choose. It’s either us or them.”