Bomb Iran? Not on Bush's watch

First, Olmert tried to convince and returned without even a joint press conference with Bush.

Then Mofaz, an Israeli minister and former general of the army made an explicit threat. More then hinting, it's coming - do something or we will bomb Iran.

And now Bush's spokeswoman expresses in the open what was told to the Israeli envoy behind closed doors: NO!

One can only imagine the type of talks happening behind closed doors between Israel and the US government right now. Or to extrapolate: The conversations which thus far had been behind closed doors regarding what should be done with Iran, has reached such a dead end that high ranking officials have decided to publicly unveil the disagreements. It sounds more and more like a crisis in the Israeli-US relations.

When Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear facilities in the 80-s it was condemned by many including the US. There are those who say that the arrest of the Israeli spy Jonathan Polard was related to the bombing. It is said that Polard provided secretive maps which Israel used in that strike. What's clear is that the intense relationship between the US and Israel in the early 80-s was influenced by both incidents.

And now we are witnessing a rewind of a similar tape. After 8 years of close relationship on the surface, some strife over a critical and similar issue begins to show. It could all be a show, a bad cop/good cop kind of a thing. It could also be something worse.