even though this has sidetracked into an Israeli Palestinian debate,

on the point of Iran and the US one only has to look at the history of Iran to see why they fear and hate the US so much. Why hate the US were the good guys arent we? Americans are pretty good at remembering only their side of history. To Iranians, America showed its contempt for Democracy by overthrowing the Democratically elected govt of Iran in 1953 and installing the brutal regime of the Shah and supporting him for 25 years. Why? The Iranians were getting uppity and wanted more royalties for their oil.

Now I have no illusions that the current regime in Iran is some kind of democracy -it is a dictatorship - however there are democratic movements in Iran unlike in anything else in the region.
ANd by threatening Iran, the US is empowering the Mullahs and making them crack down even more on dissidents.
(by the way if anybody cares - threatening another country is illegal under the UN).