Last week the world looked on in horror at the footage of a beautiful young 21-year-old girl, Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, being callously tossed to her death at a Brazilian bungee jump, as the safety rope lay uselessly unattached to one side. To add to the tragedy, it has also been reported that Maria was still alive when a nurse got to her, but she died shortly afterwards.

It’s hard not to draw a comparison with the other horror show this week, as President Donald Trump and his sidekick J.D. Vance announced a so-called ‘peace deal’ with Iran, or rather a ‘memorandum of understanding’, that appears to throw Israeli Prime Minister and the security of Israel off a cliff, with no safety rope.

This betrayal of Israel comes as a profound shock to all those who supported Mr Trump’s war against Iran not only in the hope that it would defang the world’s most evil regime, but would also provide the impetus for the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow their murderous and oppressive government.

This magazine believes it was a mistake for the Americans to halt the bombing campaign at the very point where the Iranian regime was at its most vulnerable. It is impossible to know what may have been, but any student of military history knows that when you are winning against a bloodthirsty foe, the wisest course of action is to finish off your enemy when they are down. Giving them the opportunity to re-build, re-organise and ultimately fight another day is a very grave error.

The Trump administration decided otherwise. Presumably a combination of the relentless criticism from the Tucker Carlson/Megyn Kelly anti-Israel contingent has played a part. And as such it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Israeli interests have been tossed overboard in favour of a clear run up to the midterm elections.

But will it be a clear run? Vice President Vance has been keen to declare that the Iranians will only get their hands on their frozen funds in reward for good behaviour. This sounds a little too close to the Obama/Biden formula for comfort. There are already rumblings of disquiet from within the administration, and it is hard not to draw the conclusion that this was J.D. Vance’s victory probably against the advice of smarter people like Marco Rubio.

It is tragic to think that the overthrow of the regime could have possibly been only a matter of days or weeks away had the military campaign continued.

It is equally unacceptable for the Trump administration to be restricting, or attempting to restrict, Israel’s absolute right to take all necessary measures to defend itself against Hezbollah in Lebanon and any other Iranian terrorist proxy. Arguably, Israel is being offered up as some kind of sacrifice in this perilous peace deal.

That having been said, a few things need to be kept in perspective. Firstly, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself declared last week, putting forward as brave a face as possible: ‘Together with our American friends, we embarked on the largest strike mission in the history of Israel.’  He continued, ‘We have thwarted the nuclear scientists, beheaded the leaders of the terrorist regime, crushed the nuclear factories, destroyed missiles and most of the factories that produce missiles, hit countless industries and military infrastructure, destroyed their navy, their air force, and thwarted the Basij commanders. We caused enormous damage. We estimate it at hundreds of billions of dollars, and some estimate it even close to a trillion dollars – enormous damage to the Iranian economy that took them decades to build.’

Already, however, Mr Netanyahu’s rivals are circling, smelling weakness, with Naftali Bennett vowing to bring about regime change in Iran if he wins power at the general election later in the year.

Of course, there is always the 5-D chess argument: the chance that Mr Trump is merely buying time; time for oil prices to subside; time for the stock market to recover; and time to get past the midterm elections. There are then two years of the Trump term remaining during which time, inevitably, the Iranians will revert to type, the ’deal’ will fall apart, the military campaign will resume, and ultimately the people will rise up and the regime itself will meet a grisly end.

Here’s hoping.