Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers and the ongoing war in Gaza. The conversation emphasized Trump's support for Netanyahu's objectives,

Tensions between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were already bubbling up before the president visited three of America’s key Arab allies.

Trump cuts ties with Netanyahu over concerns of manipulation, Israeli media reports. According to Israeli Army Radio, the U.S. president stopped direct contact after being told by close aides that Netanyahu was trying to play him.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would normally celebrate a hostage release such as that taking place on Monday, though in this case the deal with Hamas is another sign US President Donald Trump is starting to make decisions without him.

Netanyahu was blindsided — and infuriated — this past week by Trump’s announcement that the U.S. was halting its military campaign against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen after the Houthis agreed to stop firing on U.S. ships in the Red Sea, according to one of the U.S. officials and the two Middle East diplomats.

President Donald Trump‘s first foreign trip of his second term is underway. The president is visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. But Trump will not be visiting Israel. The exclusion of America’s historic Middle Eastern ally from Trump’s itinerary is a marked example of Trump’s declining sympathy for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s

“It certainly doesn’t look like Netanyahu has Trump’s ear right now — and if he has his ear, he doesn’t have Trump’s heart and mind,” Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the US, told the Financial Times’ Mehul Srivastava and Neri Zilber.