Any other formal ally the U.S. has a major disagreement with, it usually keeps it behind closed doors as a matter of basic courtesy.

You mean like we did with France during the build-up to the Iraq War?

Or, come to think of it, the way Israel treated the Turkish ambassador recently?

the problem is the astonishign number of Americans who seem to believe that Israel has an obligation to treat the U.S. as its ally, while the U.S. has no obligation whatsoever to treat Israel likewise.

You mean, aside from the couple of billion dollars of military aid we give them each year?