“All options are on the table” has been a sort of punctuation in US foreign policy with respect to Iran, a tacit threat of a military strike designed to “reassure” hawks of their potential bellicosity. The weekend signing of an interim deal with Iran should’ve brought that to an end.

But not where US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro was concerned, as in an interview with Israeli TV Channel 2, Shapiro once again talked up the prospect of the US using “the military option” against Iran.

Shapiro’s interview centered on downplaying the significance of the deal, which Israel’s government opposes, and playing up the possibility of the US attacking Iran for some imagined violation.

They ring particularly hollow at this point, however, as the US attacking Iran now would be virtually unthinkable, and Israeli analysts, who by and large support the deal, say they don’t see Iran violating it either. Rather, Shapiro’s comments come off as an insincere attempt to keep Israeli hawks’ hopes up about a war that, let’s face it, isn’t happening.