War with Iran was the fulfilment of a 30-year dream for Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister has warned for decades that Iran poses an existential threat to his country. On February 28, he finally unleashed a full-scale attack on the Islamic republic. Better still, from Netanyahu’s point of view, the war was a joint operation with the US.
Netanyahu persuaded Donald Trump that war would bring about regime change in Iran. At the very least, he was determined to end the Iranian threat to Israel.
But his Iran campaign has gone badly wrong. The Iranian regime is still firmly in place and has shown that it can still fire missiles at Israel. Iran-backed Hizbollah has shelled northern Israel and is battling Israeli troops in Lebanon. And now Netanyahu’s close alliance with Trump is under intense strain.