With the Israelis, their very existence as a country and a people is at stake.
With the USA (and especially with Obama) - it’s just “games and politics”!
Gambling with the lives of several 10's of millions of Americans for a few thousands of people not even at the time citizens of their nation was unacceptable across a ream of boundaries. Hell, they probably could have asked us to purchase those peoples freedom with cash in a back door deal.
The least they could have done long term was beat the snot out of the local Islamic nations and then not given back their land for "peace"...