The Washington Post editorial board on Trump’s contribution to the response:

In a reckless category of their own, however, were the comments of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump. To be sure, he labeled the Hamas attack a “disgrace” shortly after it occurred — then pivoted to blaming it on Mr. Biden’s policies. That was about par for the partisan course, alas. Yet the former president went in a bizarre new direction Wednesday by heaping scorn on Israel itself for failing to anticipate the attack and lecturing the Jewish state to “step up their game.”

He labeled the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group “very smart,” comparing it to an authoritarian he rates highly for ruling “1.4 billion people … with an iron fist”: Chinese President Xi Jinping. And he referred to Israel’s defense minister as a “jerk” for purportedly revealing weaknesses in the country’s northern defenses. To top it off, the former president said Mr. Netanyahu had “let us down” by refusing to aid the deadly strike Mr. Trump ordered against the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force on Jan. 3, 2020.

An Israeli spokesman denied the account and dismissed Mr. Trump’s comments as “shameful.” There’s a lesson here for Mr. Netanyahu, who forged a close relationship with Mr. Trump during his presidency, based on the latter’s generally uncritical support for Mr. Netanyahu. There’s a lesson, too, for the Israeli public, among whom Mr. Trump was popular while in office.

The lesson is: Don’t be fooled by a momentary alignment of Trump’s views with your own, because he doesn’t have any real views, he has only HimSelf, and he will turn on you in an instant if he thinks it will give him some kind of jollies.

Mostly, though, it is Americans who need to take notice of these comments — especially Republicans, both voters and politicians. To their credit, some of Mr. Trump’s rivals for the GOP nomination denounced his remarks. Even by his standards, they showed an extraordinary penchant for rubbing salt in the wounds of an ostensible friend and for converting an international crisis into a drama about himself. Mr. Trump’s latest outburst showed how fortunate this country is that he is not in the White House now and how unfortunate it would be if he ever returned to it.

“Unfortunate” is putting a little too mildly. It would be a catastrophe.