Toward the end of August, former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon will fly to the United States for a five-week visit. He will spend most of his time at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, lecturing, holding talks in closed forums and exchanging ideas about security and diplomacy.

Between those sessions, Ya’alon is expected to hold diplomatic-like meetings with senior members of the US administration with whom he has developed a rapport, such as Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter or the person frequently mentioned as a candidate for the next secretary of defense, Michele Flournoy. Ya’alon will also spend his time in the United States raising money for a new political party he will head.

Ya’alon is now a “concerned citizen.” Although he never formally shut the door on the Likud (Ya’alon is still a party member and holds meetings with party activists), the chances of him running for the party’s leadership are slim at best as long as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is around, and the way it looks now, Netanyahu isn’t going anywhere.

Ever since he resigned from the government and Knesset May 20 amid a huge commotion, Ya’alon has been preparing himself for the next election. He spends two days a week at the Institute for National Security Studies, and the rest of the time he is preparing himself for the political odyssey that is the inevitable outcome of his decision. So far, he hasn’t been doing too badly. He has held dozens of meetings with people who might join forces with him politically in the future, sent out feelers and released various initial statements of intent.