{"id":561990,"date":"2026-07-27T14:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/561990\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T14:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:54:09","slug":"netanyahu-and-zelenskyy-to-arrive-in-washington-for-graham-funeral-with-hopes-of-winning-trumps-ear-us-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/561990\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu and Zelenskyy to arrive in Washington for Graham funeral \u2013 with hopes of winning Trump\u2019s ear | US foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benjamin Netanyahu and Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> are set to arrive in Washington simultaneously with the goal of winning the ear of Donald Trump at pivotal moments in wars affecting their respective countries.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu, Israel\u2019s prime minister, and Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, will attend Tuesday\u2019s funeral of Lindsey Graham, the former Republican senator for South Carolina, who died suddenly on 11 July<\/a> and was a close ally of both leaders.<\/p>\n

Both men are scheduled to meet the president at a time when US policy towards the wars in Iran and Ukraine<\/a> is in a state of flux.<\/p>\n

The meeting between Trump and Netanyahu will be the first between the two leaders since February, when they were in lockstep preparing for strikes against Iran<\/a> that began on 28 February.<\/p>\n

Since then, tensions between the pair have risen as the war has drifted inconclusively, with Trump calling the Israeli premier \u201ccrazy\u201d<\/a> and declaring: \u201cWithout me, there would be no Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fueling the tensions between the pair is continuing uncertainty over Trump\u2019s zigzagging approach to the regime in Tehran, which he once openly supported toppling \u2013 in line with the stance of Netanyahu, who has long plotted its overthrow.<\/p>\n

Last month, the US signed a memorandum of understanding<\/a> that was meant to institute a 60-day ceasefire in the conflict, during which Iran would reopen the strategically vital strait of Hormuz and negotiations would begin over the country\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu is not believed to have been consulted on the deal, which some analysts say took little account of Israel\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n

Trump this month publicly repudiated the agreement as Iran continued to attack commercial ships in the strait. US forces struck Iranian targets for 13 consecutive nights as Trump threatened to escalate further by hitting civilian infrastructure.<\/p>\n

In recent days, however, the conflict has been paused once again<\/a> amid reports that negotiations have resumed and Pentagon concerns that US missile stocks are running low. Axios reported <\/a>that Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, had recommended stopping the bombing campaign because it had reached the limits of effectiveness.<\/p>\n

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump in December 2025. Photograph: Joe Raedle\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Netanyahu is also believed to be unhappy over a deal announced last week between the US and Saudi Arabia allowing for a civil Saudi nuclear program.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy\u2019s presence is equally significant as it coincides with signs of a dramatic change of Trump administration posture in Ukraine\u2019s war with Russia \u2013 with the White House appearing more supportive of Kyiv\u2019s position than at any time since Trump\u2019s return to office.<\/p>\n

The rightwing social media influencer Laura Loomer gave the latest signal of a sea change<\/a> in Washington\u2019s position when she met Zelenskyy in the Ukrainian capital last week, before publicly recanting her previous support for Russia.<\/p>\n

Trump and Zelenskyy had a cordial meeting at this month\u2019s Nato summit in Ankara that contrasted starkly with last year\u2019s bitter confrontation in the White House, when Trump openly berated his Ukrainian counterpart<\/a> and told him: \u201cYou don\u2019t have the cards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has long been open in voicing his preference for Russia\u2019s president, Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy posted on social media at the weekend that he had instructed Ukraine\u2019s intelligence services to share information on Russia\u2019s support for Iran in the conflict with the US. He wrote on X that Ukraine had recorded Russian satellite surveillance of US military facilities in the Gulf, and that of Washington\u2019s allies in the region.<\/p>\n

Graham \u2013 a hawkish supporter of Israel and fierce critic of Iran\u2019s Islamic regime \u2013 met Zelenskyy in Kyiv, the day before his death, and had been in the process of advancing a Senate bill to strengthen sanctions on Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benjamin Netanyahu and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are set to arrive in Washington simultaneously with the goal of winning the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-561990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}