Such is the state of our relationship with the only stable democracy in the Middle East, out greatest ally in the region. Smart power.

(AP) WASHINGTON – Israeli officials say they won’t warn the U.S. if they decide to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, according to one U.S. intelligence official familiar with the discussions. The pronouncement, delivered in a series of private, top-level conversations, sets a tense tone ahead of meetings in the coming days at the White House and Capitol Hill.

Israeli officials said that if they eventually decide a strike is necessary, they would keep the Americans in the dark to decrease the likelihood that the U.S. would be held responsible for failing to stop Israel’s potential attack. The U.S. has been working with the Israelis for months to persuade them that an attack would be only a temporary setback to Iran’s nuclear program.

The “plausible deniability” angle is a polite but totally bullcrap one. Israel knows full well that those who would hold America responsible will still do so, regardless of what we actually know before the strike.

Terror groups aren’t going to say, “Oh, Great Satan says it didn’t know? Well, we totally trust them, so let’s not punish them.” Everyone will assume Israel secretly told America anyway, just because that’s normal.

The reason Israel won’t tell us is because they’re afraid the information will be leaked.

We have an administration that has for weeks talked about timelines for Israeli strikes and publicly chastized our ally for even considering to do something we know — and it knows — will have to be done.

They can’t trust that Obama will get that information and not have it leaked to head-off the strike. They can’t trust us with life-and-death intelligence. They can’t trust Obama not to get their people killed.

Now watch the Obama-apologetic media buy the polite but bullcrap spin about plausible deniability. “They’re totally only not telling us because they don’t want to hurt us”. You’ll hear it for days and without even an ounce of skepticism.