Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began the year declaring that he stood “shoulder to shoulder” with U.S. President Donald Trump as the two countries launched a war against Iran.

But this week, as world leaders gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, there are no plans for the two men to be in the same room, or even in the same city.

As the war with Iran has dragged on, Trump and Netanyahu have split over how to prosecute it, straining a relationship between the two allies.

Netanyahu has also faced global criticism both for Israel’s war in Gaza and settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

Instead of a packed itinerary, Netanyahu, who arrived on Thursday, was scheduled to meet only a handful of leaders before giving his speech.

The apparent snub highlighted how badly the relationship between Trump and the prime minister has fractured.

Many in Washington link Netanyahu to the increasingly unpopular fight with Iran, and Trump has worked hard to avoid the impression that the Israeli leader pushed him into a war that Trump said would be a "little excursion" lasting only weeks.

Netanyahu’s brief visit also showed how isolated he is globally, three years after starting a punishing war in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

He faces an election next month that is widely seen as a referendum on his responsibility for the security failures surrounding the attacks and on his ability to defend Israel’s reputation on the world stage.

Throughout the week, as one head of state after another took to the podium, many sharply criticised Israel’s actions, especially in Gaza.

Before his visit, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called for his arrest, arguing that the United States should honour a warrant for Netanyahu issued by the International Criminal Court.

He is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Gaza, though the United States is not a member of the court and New York City has no authority to arrest him.

Still, the prime minister is a master showman, and often turns to props and visual aids during speeches in flawless English to drive home his message.

Last year at the summit, scores of diplomats walked out while he was speaking.

But that is unlikely to faze him, as he speaks primarily to an audience of Israeli voters.

“He schedules his speech so that it is broadcast here in primetime,” said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. who served under Netanyahu and lives in Israel.

Yet analysts contend that, absent the customary high-profile meetings, the trip might tarnish Netanyahu’s standing domestically.

"I believe the trip is a mistake, as it exposes his weaknesses," said Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations and a professor at Israel's Bar-Ilan and Reichman universities.

While many Israelis view the U.N. as hostile toward Israel, he added, the fact that he could not secure a meeting with Trump only highlights how poorly Netanyahu has managed the relationship with his nation's strongest ally.

In 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden was reluctant to host Netanyahu at the White House, yet he nonetheless made time to sit down with him on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

"Israel cannot survive without the United States," Gilboa said.

The slight in New York comes after sharp criticism from Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel and a longtime supporter of Israeli settlements, directed at settlers attacking Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

In remarks that were unusual for an ambassador, he called the attackers “terrorists.”

“It is indicative of a deeper rift,” Oren remarked regarding Netanyahu’s limited itinerary.

While in New York on Tuesday, Trump held meetings with a diverse contingent of leaders hailing from Arab nations, alongside counterparts from Denmark, Japan, Greenland, Ukraine and Venezuela, among others.

He subsequently made a swift return to Washington in order to extend a ceremonial welcome to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

For a leader who likes to portray himself as a global statesman, it is a “big, big miss for him at a time where he can’t afford misses,” Natan Sachs, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said of Netanyahu.

On previous occasions, Netanyahu had conferred with an array of prominent leaders, among them Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Olaf Scholz, who was German Chancellor at the time.

This year, however, the prime minister’s office said that “many world leaders” had asked to meet with Netanyahu during his brief visit, but that he was on a “tight schedule” and had to return to Israel before the Jewish holiday of Sukkot began, which starts at sundown on Friday.

The statement indicated that his schedule comprised leaders from Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Panama, Ethiopia, Greece, Slovenia, and Papua New Guinea.