Michael Goodwin: Trump and Vance are rattled on Iran and their attacks on Israel prove it

An essential and great ally one day, road kill the next.Such is Israel’s topsy-turvey relationship with the Trump White House. The wild swings offer the clearest example yet of how widespread criticism of the generous deal with Iran is rattling the administration. As dizzying events demonstrate, Trump himself is riding an emotional roller coaster. Axios, citing administration insiders, reports that the president unloaded on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Monday phone call. “You’re f–king crazy.

You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me.I’m saving your ass.

Everybody hates you now.Everybody hates Israel because of this,” the outlet quoted the president as saying. From there, the job of beating up the Jewish state was left to Vice President JD Vance, who fired off a series of extraordinary insults. He started in a White House press briefing notable for his brutal scolding of Israeli critics with language that tracked Trump’s Netanyahu tirade. “Donald J.

Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time, and he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower,” the Veep declared. He added, “the other thing that I would say is that over the last three months, two-thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars.The problem for Israel is not Donald J.

Trump.” Treating Israel as a nation of ingrates was bad, but worse charges were yet to come as Vance defended the beleaguered memorandum of understanding by insisting that Israel and Iran should be treated equally in key ways. As when he said, “Israel doesn’t give up the right of self-defense if Hezbollah fires rockets or drones at Israel.The Iranians don’t give up the right of self-defense in their country.” And then, “it’s very simple.

You can’t tell a country, whether Israel or Iran, they...