Is The US Behind Israel?

There is Daniel Levy's opinion:

The standard, unwavering support for any and every Israeli action was on display. There were suggestions of even greater military assistance to Israel, and any notion that a ground invasion was somehow prevented by Washington’s intervention should be measured against the simple reality that Benjamin Netanyahu had very little interest in rolling that particular die during an election season.

And there is Peter Beinart's:-

Remember all the warnings from the Israeli and American Jewish right about how we’d see the “real” Obama after he was reelected. It was nonsense then, and it’s been proven to be nonsense now. Obama’s general orientation in this crisis--support Israel’s right to attack, protect it from United Nations reprimand and then negotiate a ceasefire—was essentially the same one Mitt Romney would have pursued. The difference is that Obama did it carefully and skillfully, with maximum effect and minimum bluster. Throughout the presidential campaign, Republicans discounted Obama’s material support for Israel—as embodied by the American funding for Iron Dome—and focused on what he supposedly didn’t feel in his kishkes.

And there are other opinions, like this one (which I've translated and edited) based on "leaks":-

The main reason for not completing the operation, and the entrance to Gaza, was because it was vetoed aggressively by the U.S. and Obama on the course it.

Clinton did not come to support efforts to promote a cease-fire but foremost to emphasize to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak that the U.S. has vetoed the continued operation quite emphatically and it is severely prohibited.

Clinton threatened the Prime Minister and told him that the U.S. itself will support international action, as well as threatening to support Abbas' UN bid for statehood in all the territories of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. In fact, unilaterally adopt the positions of Abbas. And that Israel will lose.

Clinton, of course, threatened that Israel would not win military support, and financial funding of the war. Iron Dome aid will be halted.  Clinton warned Netanyahu that the U.S. president will remove completely from the table the steps to halt the Iranian nuclear program.

Clinton made it clear that, on the other hand, the U.S. will favorably consider the Israeli concessions and cease fighting in Gaza, and give Israel gifts.  First, the U.S. will force Egypt to force Hamas to observe the cease-fire...Israel will gain generous economic aid to cover the costs of the war, doubling the effort for more batteries of Iron Dome but behind this all is the threat was non-ambiguous - there would be penalties to punish Israel if Israel will continue the operation.

U.S. also promised Israel that after treatment of the Iranian issue and other issues related to the Arab Spring in the Middle East, Hamas's time will come...

...Bibi was surprised, so sure that the U.S. will stand by his side and he certainly did not expect these brutal threats...and so important to the U.S. was the cease-fire, that formal agreements and principles were waived...

That was not very encouraging.

In any case, I think Israel's leadership owes its citizens full information reporting on how the ceasefire is being observed.  Last night both Ehud Barak and Benny Begin television interviews seems very uncomfortable being pressed on this issue and how Israel will react, under what circumstances and what assurances are in place.

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And now saw this:

... the Obama Administration intervened.

They were perfectly happy for Israel to go in to Gaza and take out Hamas, but insisted that they then turn Gaza over to the Palestinian Authority. This was supposed to strengthen PA President Mahmoud Abbas as 'Palestine's savior . As as a kicker, President Obama insisted that Israel immediately declare a Palestinian State in Gaza and most of Judea and Samaria, including areas currently under Israeli sovereignty from which the Jewish residents would then be removed. These were also to be turned over to Abbas.

If the Israelis were unwilling to have the IDF do Mahmoud Abbas' dirty work for him and then give up large areas populated by Jews, then the Obama Administration told the Israelis the U.S. would not back an IDF ground assault in Gaza.

Well, opinions are not facts (some people are questionaling the reliability of all of the above).

But I still wonder: did the US really suggest it might take an inordinate anount of time to refill our emergency supply dumpls and warehouses the US maintains?

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And this:

Hillary Clinton’s Legacy

No doubt Secretary Clinton is going to try to spin her trip to the Middle East as a victory for President Obama and for peace, but as American Jews sat down for their Thanksgiving there was a rapidly widening sense that the denouement of the Gaza crisis is a loss for Israel. The secretary managed to wrest from the situation a truce that makes a winner out of the president of Egypt and Hamas in Gaza and, for that matter, their backers in Iran. For Israel and those who are invested in the survival of the Jewish state, it is hard to see anything in the Obama administration’s intervention for which to be thankful...Eli Lake, who has an ear for the nuances of the story, reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu “gave private assurances” to President Obama that Israel “was not planning at that moment to launch a ground invasion of Gaza.” Why in the world would the American president be demanding assurances from Israel? The fact is that in the current war, the administration has seen its role not as standing behind Israel but between Israel and her enemies.

And from Israel Hayom, close to Netanyahu:

A senior diplomatic official: Netanyahu avoided a ground assault due to an Egyptian threat to cancel the peace treaty.

There's this:

Four years ago, Egypt was ruled by pro-Western Hosni Mubarak, who helped keep Hamas isolated. This time around, Hamas had an effective ally in Mubarak's successor, Mohammed Morsi, like the Gaza Islamists a member of the region-wide Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi quickly emerged as an effective mediator, since he already had the trust of Hamas and Israel did not want to risk hurting its ties with the Arab world's most populous nation.
Israel's deputy prime minister, Dan Meridor, underscored Egypt's importance to Israel, suggesting they share security concerns, including making sure that "Gaza does not become a source of eruption endangering the stability of the region."