World leaders will meet in New York in September, but for the first time since Donald Trump became president, the event will not include the American leader and Israel's prime minister in the same room and the fact that they're not there is worth at least as much as what they might have said from the podium.

A high-ranking U.S. official told The Times of Israel on Friday that Benjamin Netanyahu has not been invited to be on the list of leaders Trump intends to meet with next week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, and that the two are unlikely to have a window of opportunity to meet informally. There's no indication that Netanyahu will be on the agenda of the world leaders who are meeting Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next week, and even if he does have a sitdown, the two are unlikely to have much time in their schedules, a U.S. official said.

The American president's Tuesday schedule is already packed: He will travel to London, where he will meet with the UK's prime minister, and then to Mexico and Japan before returning to Washington to meet with China's president, Xi Jinping. The Jerusalem Post's rendition, which also quotes from an independent source, completes the list of guests: bilateral meetings with Britain's Andy Burnham and Japan's Sanae Takaichi, meetings with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council and a reception for visiting heads of state, none of which are Netanyahu's.

The old Oval Office photo op or UN sidebar is now a cloudier one of Venezuela, the Gulf and, surprisingly, Texas. US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said that the president is expected to attend a reception with “some” of the other recipients, though didn't specify who those other people are, of the interim leader of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez.

Smart company Axios reported earlier in the week that Gulf leaders would be discussing “next steps” for the aftermath of the Iran war and Washington's post-war reflections on the sidelines, a discussion Israel's Channel 13 writes Netanyahu is keen to attend, even if he can't secure a meeting with Trump himself. Israel Hayom, meanwhile, is reporting that Netanyahu will meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio "while in the city" as a consolation meeting, though the Prime Minister's Office insisted that nothing was finalized as yet.

The travel plan that is being developed is almost as significant as the never-arrived meeting. Channel 13 reported on Friday that Netanyahu was making a stop in Texas before heading to New York, much like the two did in 2023, when they both came to the Tesla factory in Fremont for a live discussion that was criticized for being unsourced. An additional expense in this case: This time several members of Netanyahu's delegation would have to hop a commercial flight instead of the Wing of Zion, the state aircraft, adding to the cost for the Israelis when they are already feeling the pinch on their budgets.

It's important to consider this financial background, since that is part of why the snub in New York resonates so strongly in Jerusalem today. Netanyahu, who is halfway through his re-election campaign (and will hold a vote on October 27), find his coalition falling back to 51 Knesset seats in a new poll this week by the Times of Israel.

Any light that shines on his relationship with the man he has always portrayed as Israel's “indispensable ally” is now a source of envy for rivals like Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, who have been pressing Netanyahu to “de-escalate” ties with Washington. The US official also told the Jerusalem Post that the timing of Netanyahu's visit to New York was "deliberately kept short" due to the election, and that he may be flown in and out on the day of his General Assembly talk rather than overnight.

The other half of this tale is money, though often not mentioned in the diplomatic dispatches. Israel is now bearing the heaviest burden in defense burdens in decades. Moody's this month maintained the country's sovereign rating at Baa1 with a stable outlook despite defense and security spending nearing six percent of GDP, which is more than the prewar average, and the central government deficit projected to grow to about 5.3 percent of GDP this year before shrinking in 2027.

The cost of the conflicts since 2023, which include damage to infrastructure and homes, is estimated to be in the range of 200-220 billion shekels (roughly $60 billion), up from around 60 percent of output before October 7, according to Finance Ministry figures. In that light, the additional expense for commercial tickets to the Texas detour is of little consequence in dollar terms, but of great symbolic consequence at a time when Netanyahu's critics are lashing out from him on the issues of spending and judicial reform, which were prominent this week before the election.

All this is broader than the region as well. Trump's week in New York is really a study in triage Xi, Gulf capitals, Venezuela, Britain, Japan a group that mirrors where Washington deems its most valuable discussions, and Israel, for once, isn't in the mix. Whether it is true that the schedule is genuinely clogged, or if it is due to a conservative approach on both sides during the election period or a more measured assessment of where central Israel fits in Trump's near-term diplomatic agenda remains to be determined in the coming week.