No difference at all

Submitted by Lars Nielsen (Denmark), Jul 13, 2009 at 17:22

There is no real difference between USA saying, that it will not dictate Israels policy against Iran, and USA demanding Israel to stop expansion of settlements on the West Bank. Because Israel cannot attack Iran without american permission to overfly Iraq, and Israel will not attack Iran, unless USA promises to protect Israel from iranian retaliation. So USA has no need to discuss this matter with Israel in public.

Whereas USA has no direct means of prohibiting expansion of the israeli settlements on the West Bank. So instead they send out a public warning to the israelis, containing a hidden threat of withdrawing american support to Israel, thereby hoping to influence the political establishment and public opinion in Israel.

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