Netanyahu's quiet visit to Washington highlights Trump's frustration with the leader

Israel is just under three months out from the most consequential election for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to date. 

To win, he will need to be seen as the only candidate fully endorsed by US President Donald Trump, and the one who can best manage the critical lifeline that the US-Israeli relationship provides. 

So when one of Israel's loudest advocates - who also happened to be a personal friend and loyal ally of the US president - died suddenly earlier this month, Netanyahu seized the chance to be in Washington.

"The visit would not be taking place, had Lindsey Graham not passed," Aaron David Miller, a former adviser at the US State Department on Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and now senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Middle East Eye. 

While no foreign leader other than Netanyahu has had more facetime with the US president since he assumed power in January 2025, Tuesday's 90-minute meeting at the White House likely carried additional urgency, given it followed a series of sit-downs Trump has held with regional stakeholders, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Ankara, to Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Washington. 

Read more: Netanyahu's quiet visit to Washington highlights Trump's frustration with the leader