WASHINGTON — While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner to his residence with a hug today and shrugged off his failure to secure a governing coalition as a mere “little event,” Trump expressed regret at the rare political setback for his Israeli ally.

“It's too bad what happened in Israel,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House this morning to travel to the Air Force Academy in Colorado. “It looked like a total win for Netanyahu, who's a great guy. … And now they're back … in the election stage.” 

With new Israeli elections now tentatively scheduled for Sept. 17, a new Israeli government is not expected to be formed before late October at the earliest. The extended Israeli political tumult and campaigning into the fall— just as the US 2020 presidential election campaign heats up — greatly reduce the prospects that the Trump administration will present the political component of the Kushner peace plan until after the 2020 US elections, if at all, diplomats and analysts said.

“Now it is the deal of the next century,” mocked veteran Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat, who has engaged in frequent, angry Twitter exchanges with Trump negotiations envoy Jason Greenblatt, referring to Trump’s expressed aspiration to achieve the “deal of the century.”