20:48

For better or for worse, it now appears that on the question of Iran – a long term obsession of Netanyahu – Trump and the Israeli prime minister are completely joined at the hip. For the Israeli prime minister, that certainly helps reinforce his standing on the domestic front, but how much it will help him in persuading other members of the international community, especially co-signatories of the Iran nuclear deal who still support it, is more questionable.

The optics in the region of a US president delivering a speech that could have been written by the Israeli embassy, and Netanyahu’s celebration of that speech, may have unanticipated consequences. Israel may also regret associating itself in the future so closely with such a bellicose and contradictory speech by Trump.

Some similarities were striking with both Trump and Netanyahu make common cause with the Iranian people against the regime in Tehran giving an impression at least – whether true or not – that the speeches were in some way coordinated.

Indeed this was a risk that was warned against by Israeli columnist Chemi Chalev ahead of Netanyahu’s speech, referring explicitly to the suspicion that Israel helped push George W Bush to a war against Iraq.