Originally Posted by kane

Here is the difference. Israel's leaders don't go on TV and say that Iran needs to be wiped off the face of the earth. Iran's do. Israel is our ally. If Iran got crazy and nuked Israel, it would start a chain of events in the middle east that could lead to Israel nuking half the countries over there. We would like to avoid that if possible. The best way to avoid that is to help get the leadership of Iran removed and replaced with one that is a little more moderate. It may never happen, but that is one of the reasons they are a target.

Another is that they just don't like us and we can't be sure they won't sell a nuke a terrorist group that will then light it off in a US city.