The war with Iran that President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu partnered on is now entering its fifth month. Iran is a wreck. But so is the relationship between America and Israel.

Iran probably sees that as a victory on its own.

A flawed war plan that predicted a swift victory now pits Trump’s short attention span and aversion to accountability against Netanyahu’s continuing quest to topple Iran’s regime and desperation to hold sway over voters ahead of the next Israeli election.

To gauge the impact of the war on that relationship, I spoke to leaders of two American pro-Israel groups. Those interviews, conducted on June 26 while both men were in Israel, showed shared concerns about the relationship and the shaky “memorandum of understanding” (MOU) that Trump agreed to with Iran, without Israel’s participation. 

Even so, they had very different ideas about how to proceed.

The Iranians are 'mocking' President Trump

Ilan Goldenberg, senior vice president and chief policy officer at the progressive, pro-peace group J Street, told me that Trump's MOU with Iran is a bad deal, but that continuing the war was worse.

Michael Makovsky, CEO of the more hawkish Jewish Institute for National Security of America, is a critic of Trump's MOU and thinks the war should continue until Iran's nuclear program is eliminated and the Strait of Hormuz is fully open to traffic.

Makovsky, who spoke to me after being part of a delegation that met with Netanyahu on June 22, said public feuding between........

© USA TODAY