The Memo: Mideast troubles press in on Trump

President Trump is facing trouble on two fronts in the Middle East — and it’s not clear how he gets out of it.

Iran is pressing what it sees as its strategic advantage over control of the Strait of Hormuz, ratcheting up its rhetoric and its demands.

The Islamic Republic’s leadership is now insisting the U.S. must pay reparations, among other concessions, if the vital shipping channel is to return to seminormalcy.

At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday threw a wrench into Trump’s plans for stabilizing the situation in Gaza. 

Netanyahu rejected a 15-point plan that could, perhaps, have advanced the arduous task of lowering hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians.

The deal, in simple terms, envisioned a phased process whereby Hamas would gradually disarm and, in return, Israel would withdraw from Gaza.

Hamas had signed up for the deal, but Netanyahu rejected it unequivocally in on-camera remarks at an Israeli Cabinet meeting.

“Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” he said, twice.

The Iran and Gaza developments, though separate, combine to create problems for Trump. 

The Iran war has been unpopular since its inception, in part because it has directly impacted Americans with higher gas prices and broader inflationary pressure. 

The seeming collapse of the Gaza disarmament deal has less direct effect on American domestic politics, but it still deprives Trump of a sliver of good news in the global arena.

On the Iran question, Trump blasted back Monday with a demand that reparations should flow from Tehran to Washington rather than the other way round.

In a social media post, the president contended that an Iranian demand for compensation “was never mentioned in........

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