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

The White House has called Trump’s visit a “historic return to the Middle East” but Israel is once again not on the itinerary.

A series of side deals by the U.S. administration is raising questions about how closely in sync the allies are over major challenges in the region.