Senior US officials consider the PM’s pitch to have been overblown, creating potentially far-reaching consequences for IsraelMiddle East crisis – live updatesWhen Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on 29 December last year, the Israeli prime minister came with an appeal – and a not so subtle inducement.After months of restocking air defence and other missiles after June’s 12-day conflict in which the US joined in to bomb Tehran’s nuclear facilities, Israel was ready to go again, this time with more substantial objectives. Continue reading...