Due to a series of circumstances, it turns out that Israel’s top soldier will likely be the first ranking official to personally deliver a message from the new Bennett-Lapid government to the US administration in Washington.

The chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, had postponed two scheduled Washington visits in recent months at the last minute due to security-related exigencies. If nothing untoward happens in the coming hours, he is to board a flight to Washington on June 20.

On June 16, he held a lengthy meeting with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to discuss his Washington agenda. Although soldiers in uniform are not supposed to involve themselves in politics, Kochavi is to become the first top-level Israeli official to present himself in the US capital with personal messages from Israel’s newly installed prime minister.

The timing of his visit to Washington is crucial and dramatic. Contrary to initial Israeli assessments, the nuclear program deal between the United States and world powers and Iran has not been finalized yet. What Israeli analysts described as President Joe Biden’s “mad dash” to return to the nuclear agreement has become a complex, exhausting saga. Israel had been hoping in recent weeks that negotiators in Vienna would fail to reach significant understandings or a breakthrough prior to the June 18 presidential elections in Iran.