India, March 17 -- The US-Israel military alliance faced a direct challenge from within the American administration on Tuesday over the Iran war. Donald Trump's top anti-terror aide, Joseph 'Joe' Kent, resigned and called the conflict a "manipulation" by Israel. Within minutes, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu gloated in a video about the alliance, and promised more "surprises". The series of events underlined deep fissures as the war widens and drags.

In his first reaction to the resignation, Trump later called it "a good thing", and termed Joe Kent - a war veteran - "very weak on security". He slammed Kent's assessment that Iran was not an imminent threat to American lives.

In his letter to Trump, Kent alleged that Israel "pressured" the...