It is true that the Israelis have been told to stand down by us in the recent past -- the "Powell" doctrine. However, the speech I heard today sounded very much like the "Cheney-Rumsfeld" doctrine has won the debate. He basically called Arafat a terrorists without using his name directly. The quote goes something like this:"The Palistinian people deserve new leadership not compromised by terrorism." Using logical inference that means Arafat. The reason he didn't use Arafats name directly may include that he wants to save that card for another day when it will be a better play. From this alone, I am quite satified that he is not caving in. Instead he was wise and disciplined enough to stick with diplomatic speak.
Secondly, Israel just anounced that it was going to do major military operations to root out terrorist organizations. So far, I havn't heard Pres. Bush or Powell for that matter, tell the Isrealis to stand down on their current operation. That might change if things start to get too hot. I did hear Pres. Bush say that Israel has the right to defend itself. To me that is giving tacit approval to the current major military action.
Finally, the Israeli response to the speech has been quite postive so far. So it seems to me they are singing from the same song sheet.