Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in flight somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, en route to a meeting of G20 leaders in Bonn, Germany, when Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the White House earlier this month for what seemed to be a mutual attempt at a kumbaya moment. The convocation of Netanyahu and Donald Trump, two inscrutable world leaders, was widely anticipated for a number of reasons; not only did Trump’s fledgling administration appear keen on resetting its relationship with Israel and its leader, but they also seemed to be oscillating on their approach to facilitating peace in the region. Moreover, the two men, while notably different, shared a deep, and unusual bond. Trump, on the one hand, was a draft dodger, serially bankrupt real estate developer, who was enduring his first month of real governmental experience. Netanyahu, on the other, was a decorated war hero, who had worked at the staid and punctilious Boston Consulting Group, who became the leader of the Likud Party during the early days of the Clinton administration. But they did have one thing in common: Jared Kushner.

Upon his arrival, Netanyahu and his wife were greeted by Donald and Melania Trump before the two men walked onstage in the East Room of the White House. Framed by both an American and Israeli flag, with the room’s familiar gold drapes swaying behind them, the two prepared to address the media and top advisors. At one point, a reporter asked the president about the rise of anti-Semitic incidents across the country since he launched his campaign. Trump muttered a perplexing answer that was more of a boast about his victory in the electoral college than a reassurance to the Jewish community. Netanyahu, however, came to his new ally’s defense. “I’ve known President Trump for many years, and to allude to him, or to his people—his team, some of whom I’ve known for many years, too,” he said. “Can I reveal, Jared, how long we’ve known you?”

He was, of course, referring to Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, and an observant Orthodox Jew who is the heir to a prominent New Jersey real-estate billionaire who has spent part of his vast fortune supporting Democrats and Jewish charities. Decades ago, Kushner offered his childhood bedroom up to Netanyahu when the prime minister visited the U.S., according to The New York Times. All these years later, it seemed, Kushner and Netanyahu’s bond had endured. The two had recently shared dinner with Tillerson, before his overseas trip, a source familiar with the situation told me. And Kushner, who enjoys something of a sprawling, amorphous West Wing portfolio (he is nominally in charge of job creation, cutting governmental I.T. costs and brokering peace in the Middle East, among other issues), appears to have grown more comfortable in meetings with foreign officials, despite his lack of political or diplomatic experience. When Mexican foreign minister Luis Videgaray visited Washington earlier this month to discuss his country’s strained relationship with the Trump administration, he sat down with Tillerson and Kushner to hammer things out, a source familiar with the situation told me. When Tillerson was planning his trip to Mexico, Kushner joined him to present the details of his plans to Trump. (Tillerson would reportedly not learn of Trump’s walk-back of his commitment to a two-state solution for Middle East peace until the press conference at which Netanyahu invoked the president and Kushner.)

Kushner has wobbled somewhat as he has figured out his footing in the West Wing. In his first week, one source previously told me that he lost seven pounds and got “fucking furious” with his father-in-law after he blew up a meeting with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto. But Kushner has nevertheless held court as some of the country’s most powerful executives visited the White House, and, as one source pointed out to me last month, chaos tends to break out in the West Wing between sundown on Friday and sundown on Saturday, when Kushner observes Shabbat, and the administration tends to clean up the mess once he is back to work by Sunday. (These weekend kerfuffles have become less frequent. The Kushners have traveled with Trump to Palm Beach or stayed with him in D.C. over the last three weekends.)