Christopher Caldwell is characteristically brilliant in the Spectator today

'You cannot blame Netanyahu for taking advantage – probably never again would his country get to deal with a president so gullible. But as soon as the attacks began on Iran, the news brought talk of tactical ‘divergences’ between Israel and the United States. Israel wanted Iran wrecked and weak and was hitting oil infrastructure that the United States had warned it not to. The United States wanted the oil industry up and running – first to lay claim to the oil for Trump, as happened in Venezuela, later to prevent the tit-for-tat strikes on Middle Eastern oil that could cause a global depression.'

'In fact the only divergence between Israel and the United States, when it comes to war aims, is that Israel has them and the United States does not. That, of course, could be problem enough. For Europeans now marching against the war, Israel’s invasion of Lebanon is evidence the United States is abetting an escalation of Israel’s unpopular Gaza war. For a growing part of Trump’s own base, while Iran remains the bigger threat to America’s global position, Israel is the bigger threat to America’s democracy.'

'He [Trump] may already be – incredible though it sounds – one of the half-dozen most important Americans who ever lived.'