Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Mar-a-Lago, the American president's residence in Florida, on Monday, December 29, is expected to be a delicate affair. The Israeli prime minister seems to have fallen out of favor with the Trump administration, and especially with the most influential inner-circle figures – after the president himself, Vice President JD Vance; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and an influential adviser; Steve Witkoff, the president's special envoy for Ukraine and the Middle East; and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff. "He has lost them. The only one he has left is the president, who still likes him, but even he wants to see the Gaza deal moving faster than it is right now," a White House official told the US media outlet Axios on Friday, December 26.
The turning point was the December 13 assassination of Raad Saad, a Hamas military official whom Israel has claimed was one of the architects of the October 7 attack, in Gaza. The move, which came after the Israeli army violated the ceasefire brokered by Trump multiple times, greatly irritated the White House. Since the ceasefire was announced on October 10, approximately 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire and bombings, while three Israeli soldiers have been killed.
