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You're not alone there. The unquestioning adoration for Israel on this site can be a bit unnerving. They are our ally, for better or worse. I sympathize with their challenges and admire their toughness and their achievements. Israel is a nation that has aggressively spied on us and, at times of existential crises, even attacked our assets in hopes we'd blame their enemies (the Lavon Affair, the USS Liberty.)

It is one thing, and proper, to sign mutual defense treaties or have understandings of such with allied nations. It is quite another to put in writing that U.S. soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen will shed blood and be killed if a friendly nation decides to pre-emptively attack another nation. That goes for any friendly nation, not just Israel.

Israel has somewhere in the range of 200 nuclear weapons. It has one of the finest air forces on Earth, and probably the most effective intelligence operation in the Mossad. Israel receives billions of dollars of foreign military aid per year from the U.S. They are more than capable of both defending their country and, should they wish, inflicting crippling damage upon Iran in an offensive strike.

To put it lightly, I would defend my best friend no matter what if he is sucker punched in a bar. If he asked me to promise to back him up no matter what because he wants to sucker punch a smaller guy who ran his mouth a bit... that's a different situation.

“Israel receives billions of dollars of foreign military aid per year from the U.S.”

We receive 1.5 billion dollars in aid, with lots of strings attached. For all of me, you could keep it.

” They are more than capable of both defending their country and, should they wish, inflicting crippling damage upon Iran in an offensive strike.”

We do not have delivery capability; no carriers. And one does not use nuclear warheads except in the direst of circumstances. See Heinlein’s Star Ship Trooper for an explanation, if one is needed.

“To put it lightly, I would defend my best friend no matter what if he is sucker punched in a bar. If he asked me to promise to back him up no matter what because he wants to sucker punch a smaller guy who ran his mouth a bit... that’s a different situation. “

Your analogy does not fit. Iran is not smaller. It is huge compared to Israel, and was a rival empire to both Rome and Greece. Furthermore, they are not running their mouth, they are getting ready to slaughter us and dominate a vital region with the threat of nuclear bombs. What they are is the big bruiser in the bar that’s getting ready to bust the bottom off a bottle and start cutting, and in those circumstances, a sucker punch may well be our only hope, “our” meaning both the US and Israel.

If you want to sit it out and let us take on the bruiser with the bottle, ok. Could you lend us a carrier, at least? And train our “finest air force in the world” in carrier takeoffs and landings. They don’t know how to do that. Few pilots do outside of the US Navy and Marines. To use your analogy, we may want to sucker punch Iran, but we’d need a freakin’ step ladder to get within range.

Di Fi is lying about the bill. There is no automatic declaration of war.Beyond that Iran's regime has promised to destory America and mocked the concept of mutually assured destruction. Even if we were not dealing with Twelver psychotics who believe that a nuclear war will bring the Mahdi, a nuclear Iran means American cities turn to glass.

Israel has limited conventional capabilities to hit Iran. Israel cannot use nukes first. It would have to think outside the box and use things like container ships launching cruise missiles and even ICBMs filled with solid warheads to crack buried facilities. Even then, it would only get one strike with ~100 bombers and 24 fighters that have the range.