"but if Israel decides to make a midnight bombing run then where does that put us?"
Right smack in the middle of it, but you knew that. First Israel would not do it without our blessings second they are the best possible only reliable ally we have in the Middle East so it's completely appropriate for him to make the statem,ent.
Israel can't do it without our approval.
Re your #17 -
One of my pet theories is that Saudi Arabia has a lot of influence on what the US will allow Israel to do and what we won't allow them to do.
There have been a lot of edicts imposed upon Israel that IMHO were not in the best interests of that nation.
Such as not letting them "finish" the 7 days war or ultimately retain much if any of the territory they took from their invaders. And we are constantly intervening on behalf of the "Palistinian State", as well as funding it's terrorism and enriching it's boss terrorists with billions of US taxpayers dollars.
This recent Gaza pullout capitulation fiasco was either the final act of dementia by PM whatzisname before his last unfortunate brain blowout (whereupon he has been religated to the produce department pending assumption of room temprature), or very heavy manipulation by the US Secretary of State, who in turn is being obedient to our Saudi masters.
Should we resist any Saudi desires for us to diddle over our "Allie" Israel at their behest, we'd probably be riding our bikes to work and eating grass within 3 months.
And they know it.
The only way Iran gets whacked is if the Saudis consider Iran to be a threat to their oil fields, as was Saddamn.
Which as far as I know (not much, really) they likely do.
Then they will, as always, let us do the dirty work for them. How many Saudi troops are with the Coallition in Iraq, by the way?
But if Israel really comes under a serious attack, I do not expect us to be allowed to do much about it.
The Saudis will have us by the cahunas and the Chicoms will have us around the neck.
Oh; BTW; I fully expect that said attack will come fairly soon, and end up in a place called Meggido.
And Israel will not be needing us after all.
...Read the Book for details.