Netanyahu’s ultimate objective has always been to manipulate the American president into taking the lead role in a more or less perpetual war with Iran. He has on his side the admiration of large segments of the American right and Trump’s natural sympathy for a nation which, like American Christian nationalists, feels both entitled and surrounded by blind hostility. Will it be enough?
Netanyahu’s religion is alien to Trump. MBS, on the other hand, appeals to his autocratic prejudices, his aesthetic sensibilities, his materialism, and his enthusiasm for making deals. There was a time when MBS would have supported an Iran war, but not now; it would threaten his modernization project. In the end, he is likely to be the more persuasive of the two indispensable men.
We can probably be grateful for that.