With the pace of world events seemingly accelerating, news that once would have dominated headlines for weeks is now quickly relegated to the bottom of the live blog. Amid the tariff chaos and the ongoing war in Ukraine, the apparent killing of a fleet of paramedics by Israeli forces, and their burial in a mass grave, has quickly slipped down the news agenda. It is in this chaotic context that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, fresh from his visit to Hungarian ally Viktor Orbán, is travelling to Washington, for his second visit since Trump’s return to the White House.

His travel schedule means he will be out of Israel for around a week, at a time when he is under increasing legal pressure. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is due to rule on his firing of Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, and he is still trying to dismiss his own Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara. Meanwhile, investigations into “Qatargate”, the alleged funnelling of money from the Qatari government to people close to Netanyahu, are ramping up, with one of the Prime Minister’s closest confidants, Yonatan Urich, currently in police custody.

Bibi’s domestic travails and his impending summit with Trump help explain the intensification of the war in Gaza, with IDF forces now deploying to the so-called “Morag Corridor” for the first time since the ceasefire was agreed in January, as well as returning to operations Rafah. There are currently still 59 Israeli hostages being held by Hamas.

For now, the “big war” promised by newly appointed IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has yet to materialise, with Israeli forces in the Strip still far below the previous levels and as of yet there has been no announcement of a fresh mobilisation of reservists. This is partly due to a fear that many reservists would fail to turn up: in some units, only around half of the summoned soldiers have reported for duty, and the army leadership is concerned that many of their conscripts are flatly unwilling to continue to fight.

This all puts pressure on Bibi to achieve some concrete results sooner rather than later. As does Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May: normalisation of relations with the Saudis has been a long-term goal for Israel, and a key element of Trump’s ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Continuing footage of dead civilians, even if Hamas are still holding hostages captive, will not help any of this. These demands, domestic and international, is why the war is being waged with renewed vengeance, particularly in Gaza.

There is tacit approval of this from the Americans, with Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz working closely with US envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been notably silent on the collapse of the ceasefire he helped to engineer. It seems the Trump administration has given Israel the go-ahead for a time-limited escalation, to put further pressure on Hamas in future negotiations.

There is no doubt that Netanyahu is under strain, and it looks like he has no grand plan to get through the current impasse. This makes the meeting with Trump all the more important. Israel came out better than most from the recent tariff impositions, with tariffs of 17% being levied on goods imported into the US. But this was still worse than countries like the UK. Netanyahu will be aiming for some tariff relief, and a clear US-backed plan of Saudi normalisation, which the October  7 attack stopped in its tracks. Tariff relief and the resumption of the Abraham Accords are more interwoven than they might appear, given that part of America’s broader anti-China strategy involves establishing a link from Europe to India via the Middle East, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, as a rival to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

And finally, as always, there is the matter of Iran. With Trump ensconced in the White House, Bibi no longer has to worry about the political and diplomatic blowback from an attack on the Islamic Republic, only the logistical and military repercussions. If Netanyahu leaves Washington on Wednesday with approval for strikes against Iran, perhaps with more powerful ordnance that can penetrate the Islamist regime’s deep nuclear bunkers, even this current period of disarray may be a calm before the storm.

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David Swift is a historian and author. His next book, Scouse Republic, is available to pre-order now.

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