"Israeli officials have been singing the praises of President Obama for his willingness to address their defense concerns and for actions taken by his administration to bolster Israel's qualitative edge -- an edge eroded, according to Israel, during the final year of the George W. Bush presidency," according to The Forward, a U.S. Jewish weekly.

Cynics might argue that Obama is hewing to the longtime U.S. commitment to maintain Israelis' qualitative military edge, known in military-speak as the QME, over their regional foes largely to persuade the Jewish state from carrying out its threatened pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear program.

Netanyahu's dogged refusal to curb, let alone halt, settlement expansion, which he has flatly declared Israel will never relinquish, could well produce another spasm of violence in that blood-soaked part of the Holy Land.

But while Netanyahu grapples with the Palestinians and Lebanon's Hezbollah, he and his generals are preparing to fight wider wars in the Middle East that are predicated on Israel's long-held doctrine of the pre-emptive strike.

Think 1967, the June 1981 airstrike on Saddam Hussein's French-built Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad, and the still mystery-shrouded air raid in September 2007 that allegedly knocked out a nuclear facility in the Syrian desert.

Obama prefers the diplomatic option, much to Netanyahu's chagrin.

An Israeli air and missile attack, most likely a series of strikes since the Israeli air force does not have the ability to knock out key targets with one blow, would invite Iranian retaliation and probably ignite conflict around the region.

Obama's efforts to revive the dead-in-the-water Arab-Israeli peace process, 16 years old and aging fast, has made him highly unpopular in Israel, according to recent surveys.

But this apparently has not impaired relations at the strategic level.

"Amid the cacophony of U.S.-Israeli clashes on the diplomatic front, public attention given to this unidentified strategic cooperation has been scant," The Forward's Nathan Guttman commented.

Washington has been reluctant to supply Israel with the latest bunker-busting bombs, needed to blast deeply buried Iranian nuclear sites, or more aerial tankers, vital for expanding Israel's airstrike capabilities.

But later this year the Pentagon is expected to sell Israel an initial batch of 25 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, the most advanced aircraft in the U.S. arsenal, and other sensitive technology.

The biannual Juniper Cobra missile-defense exercises held by the Americans and Israelis in November, the largest joint maneuvers they've ever held in Israel, underlined the U.S. commitment.

It involved the use of a long-range X-band radar, the most advanced such system in the world, that the Americans deployed in the Negev Desert in 2008 to bolster Israel's missile defenses.

Juniper Cobra for the first time involved the integration of U.S. missile defenses into Israel's expanding anti-missile shield, a move of immense strategic importance that has largely been overlooked by the world at large.

The Americans will also continue to fund the development of the Arrow-3, the most advanced variant of Israel's long-range, high-altitude system for countering Iranian ballistic missiles.

Over the last few years Israeli military doctrine has undergone its most profound change since the state was founded.

It has moved away from waging large-scale ground wars like those fought in 1967 and 1973 to countering the long-range threat posed by Iran's missiles.

This has involved a significant shift in Israel's strategic capabilities, including the purchase several years ago of three Dolphin-class submarines from Germany.

These are reputed to carry nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, thus giving Israel unprecedented strategic reach. Two more are on order and Israel is negotiating for a sixth.

Much of Israel's concern about the QME stemmed from the Bush administration's decision to sell the United States' Arab allies -- the Gulf states, Egypt and Jordan -- arms worth $20 billion, including long-sensitive advanced missiles and bombs, to counter Iran.

Israel, sweetened by a U.S. pledge of arms worth $30 billion, initially agreed to this. But it later became concerned that the military balance was being tilted against it. Obama's response was to assuage Israeli concerns.

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