Over the past few days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying to lower expectations surrounding US President Donald Trump's visit to Israel, which is scheduled for May 22 (an official announcement about the visit has yet to be made). A source within Netanyahu’s inner circle commented that Netanyahu will not agree to negotiate terms for moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He also said that a statement recognizing Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel is just as important as actually moving the embassy.

However, the embassy issue is not what is keeping Netanyahu up at night; he is more concerned about the "ultimate deal" that Trump keeps mentioning. Netanyahu is worried that Trump could drop a new "package deal" on his desk. The problem is that the prime minister lacks the coalition, energy and desire to deal with a new diplomatic process, especially one that is faster, more chaotic and more challenging than the last one.

In this context, one particular "demon" marked by the prime minister's office is American Jewish billionaire Ronald Lauder. Once a close friend of Netanyahu, he was also his first patron, back in the 1980s. As Walla News reported on April 26, Lauder also has a historic and particularly close relationship with Trump, based on family, school and business ties, decades of cooperation and personal connections. While billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who is close to Netanyahu, is beginning to show the first signs of disappointment with Trump, Lauder is one of the few people who has the president's ear. According to the Prime Minister's Office, Lauder has been whispering more than idle nothings into Trump's ear. As one of the people closest to Netanyahu told Al-Monitor recently, on the condition of anonymity, "If there are any two people who believe that it is possible to reach an arrangement in the Middle East, they are Donald Trump and Ronald Lauder."

Lauder and Netanyahu have had no relationship whatsoever since the airing of Channel 10's "Bibi Tours" investigative report in March 2011. Since Lauder was then the biggest stockholder and controlling interest in the channel, Netanyahu's people placed enormous pressure on him to keep the report off the air. They were concerned about its serious allegations surrounding the Netanyahu family's activities, including Netanyahu’s ties with various billionaires and the way his international travel and other indulgences were funded. Some of those claims are, in fact, at the center of an ongoing police investigation. When Lauder failed to prevent the report from being aired, he was shunned and exiled from Netanyahu's inner circle, a situation that persists today. He went from being a favorite confidante to a pariah. Steven Schneier, an American who divides his time between New York and Jerusalem, oversaw the relationship between Lauder and Netanyahu for years. He tried to arrange a reconciliation between the two men, but all of his efforts were in vain.