NOT SO SPECIAL — Israel’s early-morning strikes targeting Iran have supercharged a debate that has been simmering for years on the MAGA right: Is America’s “special relationship” with Israel consistent with the realist principles of an “America First” foreign policy?

Israel's latest action pits traditional Republican support for Israel — and antipathy toward Iran — against the MAGA base's fear that the U.S. will be drawn into a new foreign war.

Mollie Hemingway, the editor in chief of The Federalist, warned that an escalation with Iran would cost Trump “really polling support that would be permanent,” and it would be seen as a “powerful gift” to the president’s “political enemies who still seek to destroy him and the movement he leads.”