Right, so Benjamin Netanyahu believed Washington had just handed him a lifeline.

He had spoken with America's secretary of state, received promises of strong action against the institution threatening him, and felt confident enough to announce it to his Cabinet as if the outcome was already decided. A very positive development for Netanyahu, certainly.

He faced an active arrest warrant, and the most powerful government in the world was now vowing to make things very difficult for those behind it.

That seems like a win, at least while the applause is still ringing out and no one has looked at the details.

Because Washington couldn't just say, "We're doing this for Bibi." That would sound a bit unseemly, wouldn’t it? So Marco Rubio wrapped the whole move in the Stars and Stripes and cast America as the victim.

American sovereignty. American troops. American officials supposedly under threat from foreign judges thousands of miles away.

It’s not Netanyahu being shielded. Honest guv.

Certainly not. How crude to even suggest it.

Except Donald Trump then stepped in and did what he does best: the lobotomised orange fruitcake said out loud the part everyone else had spent weeks carefully sidestepping, because he’s far too stupid not to. And so the cover story falls apart.

Netanyahu had welcomed the promise. Rubio had provided the patriotic rationale. Trump then tore off the wrapping paper and told everyone whose gift it really was.

That is the point where Netanyahu's supposed victory starts to look much less certain, isn’t it? Because Trump didn't just embarrass Rubio. He tied the American president's own words directly to the protection Netanyahu had been celebrating five days earlier.

Netanyahu thought he had been handed a lifeline.

Trump may have just turned it into a burning fuse.