Almost immediately after an Iranian-US ceasefire was announced, Israel worked to sabotage it by carrying out massive bombings across Lebanon, causing hundreds of casualties. Really, who are the terrorists?

Even so, it’s hard to see how the supposed two-week ceasefire could hold when each side is making maximalist demands. As many experts have observed, control of the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of the world’s oil and gas, is ultimately the sticking point.

Donald Trump may not appreciate its full implications, but those in the know in Israel and the US cannot possibly accept Iranian control of the strait, which will not only guarantee the country’s future security but also its potential emergence as a world power. This could reconfigure the whole regional, if not global, order.

Yet, that may be the best outcome for the world – to end the hegemony of the US and the state terrorism of Israel in the Middle East.

It didn’t have to be this way.

America has been bombing a people who once tried to be its friends in its greatest peril. And it is making friends with the leader of a country who at one time sought its destruction. The mainstream US media don’t talk much about any of that.