President Donald Trump will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next week to advance a flurry of high-stakes negotiations, but his trip comes as cracks seem to have appeared in his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On the agenda are reviving hostage talks with Israel and Hamas, exploring an off-ramp for the Russia-Ukraine war and potentially a civil nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, even if the kingdom refuses to normalize ties with Israel.
However, an apparent chill between Trump and Netanyahu has grabbed the attention of Middle East watchers.
Yanir Cozin, a correspondent for Israeli Army Radio, claimed this week that Trump had "cut contact" with the Israeli leader. That report has not been independently confirmed, but it aligns with an emerging perception in Israeli political circles that the Trump-Netanyahu axis may be fraying.
4TH ROUND OF US-IRAN TALKS ENDS AS TRUMP SET TO EMBARK ON HISTORIC MIDDLE EAST TOUR
"There's always a method to the president's madness, so to speak," said Scott Feltman, executive vice president of the One Israel Fund. "There is a prevailing thought that [Trump] very much wants Israel to stand on its own two feet… To some extent, he may be giving the prime minister a little bit of tough love."
Sources told Reuters Trump is prepared to move forward with a civil nuclear deal with Riyadh even if Saudi Arabia holds off on normalizing relations with Israel - a dramatic shift from both his first administration and Biden's, which had tied such deals to broader normalization goals.
For Israel, that shift may be unsettling. Riyadh has long insisted on the creation of a Palestinian state as a precondition for full ties with Israel, an outcome Netanyahu has rejected.
Over the weekend, it was revealed Trump was in talks with Doha officials about a potential deal for Qatar to loan the U.S. a jet to replace Air Force One. Israeli supporters have long been skeptical of Qatar, claiming it has ties to Hamas.
Meanwhile, frustration in Jerusalem grew this week when the U.S. reached a ceasefire agreement with Yemen's Houthi militants. The deal, brokered without Israeli input, required the Houthis to halt attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes but made no mention of their assaults on Israel.
"Trump, to a large extent, basically threw Israel under the bus," said Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official and regional analyst. "I think the Israeli government is puzzled, embarrassed … particularly in the context of the Houthis."
Netanyahu made clear Israel would not rely on the U.S. to handle the Houthi threat. "Israel will defend itself by its own forces," he said Thursday, with Defense Minister Israel Katz echoing that position.
TRUMP SAYS LAST LIVING AMERICAN HOSTAGE EDAN ALEXANDER WILL BE RELEASED BY HAMAS
Despite the rhetoric, the U.S. continues to support Israel's defenses. On Friday, a U.S. THAAD missile system intercepted rockets fired toward Israel by Houthi forces.
"The United States isn't required to get permission from Israel to make some type of arrangement that would get the Houthis from firing on our ships," U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee told Israel's Channel 12 this week.
However, Huckabee shot down any report of tensions between the two world leaders.
"It's reckless & irresponsible for press to allege that @POTUS and @IsraeliPM are not getting along," Huckabee said in a post on X. "Bibi has spent more time with @realDonaldTrump than I have in past 3 months & I'm his ambassador! The relationship between US & Israel remains STRONG!"
"Israel has had no better friend in its history than President Trump. We continue to work closely with our ally Israel to ensure remaining hostages in Gaza are freed, Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon, and to strengthen regional security in the Middle East," National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt told Fox News Digital in response to the reports of tensions.
Other experts caution against reading too much into the friction.
"The Israelis never had any false impressions that the U.S. was striking the Houthis to defend Israel," said Gregg Roman of the Middle East Forum. "It was to protect global commerce... And it's not like the U.S. has abandoned Israel."
Roman also downplayed tensions over the potential Saudi nuclear deal. "I think a safer Saudi Arabia, at the end of the day, will lead to a safer Israel."
Adding to the regional uncertainty is Netanyahu's silence on Iran. While his government has tallied recent gains against Iranian proxies - Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Assad regime - he has so far refrained from weighing in publicly on nuclear negotiations with Tehran.
Still, Netanyahu says he remains in close contact with the Trump team about Iran. "I said to President Trump that I hope that this is what the negotiators will do," he recently told reporters. "We're in close contact with the United States. But I said one way or the other-Iran will not have nuclear weapons."
Trump "is not scheduled to visit Israel on this trip, and I actually think that that might very well be a good thing, because he may find that he hears from the Sunni states that they're just as upset about the path that is taking place right now with negotiations with Iran," said Feltman. "They have just as much to lose from a nuclear Iranian regime."
