During one of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's frequent statements to the press in July, he offhandedly dismissed an assertion that he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin a day earlier. A year or two ago, any conversation between the two men would have figured prominently in the news cycle. It would certainly have merited a separate story. In today’s world, however, it is not a story at all.

According to several Israeli sources familiar with the Israeli-Russian relationship, telephone calls between Netanyahu and Putin are now a matter of routine. Over the past few months, Netanyahu met with Putin face to face on three separate occasions, while he did not meet once with US President Barack Obama. He even turned down an invitation from Obama’s staff for a meeting in the United States. The question now is whether Netanyahu and Obama will meet in September at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. While it is assumed that they will, given the terrible relationship between the two men, it is hard to bet on such a meeting taking place.

As Netanyahu drifts away from Obama at a rapid pace, he is drawing closer to Putin at an equally quick pace. That is not all. Israel’s relationship with China is also heating up with microwave-like speed. Over the past few years, Israel has invested considerable energy in an effort to upgrade its relationship with the Far East and Southeast Asia and with India, Korea and other countries.

Not everyone in Israel is happy about this. Does it come “at the expense” of Israel’s close relationship with the West, particularly with the United States and the European Union? Netanyahu’s staff swears that it does not. Even sources in the Foreign Ministry, which is dominated by Netanyahu, who holds the foreign affairs portfolio, told Al-Monitor that there is no reason to anticipate that such a move would harm Israel's strategic relationship with its Western allies.