A gloom-and-doom atmosphere has started to settle on Israel in light of what’s happening with the Syrian issue. ''The Russian initiative,'' a highly placed Israeli diplomatic source well involved with the goings-on told me yesterday [Sept. 10], “is, at the moment, in complete coordination with the Americans. [President] Obama has aligned himself with the Russian initiative, and [Secretary of State] John Kerry’s meeting with Sergey Lavrov is supposed to synchronize the entire event.”

Many people in Israel feel that the United States has declined the French proposal to take the case to the Security Council, in coordination with Moscow, under the assumption that a Russian veto would scuttle the idea from the beginning. Now, the Israelis reckon, the Americans hope to reach joint guidelines with the Russians regarding full neutralization of chemical weapons in Syria. “What the Americans don’t take into consideration,” they say in Israel, “is the fact that such an initiative can take long months, and the Syrians can knock it down any time. If they suddenly decide to overturn it in seven months, let’s say, will anyone even remember that Obama intended to execute a military operation in Syria?”

The Syrian business worries the Israelis less. Israel knows how to live with chemical weapons in Syria, and if the incident ends with neutralization of these weapons, this will be an important net gain for Israel. But what really disturbs the sleep of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu these days is the question: What do the proceedings regarding Syria forecast about future American conduct regarding Iran?

“If Obama raises the bar this way for a minor assault that has no potential for entanglement and no significant economic price tag, what will happen when he faces the necessity of doing something about Iran?” they ask in Jerusalem. “After all, an attack in Iran will set the whole Persian Gulf on fire, sharply raise the price of oil, and in general extract a heavy and immediate price. Now, he’ll have to go to the Congress for that scenario as well, and it’s very hard to assume that Congress will approve. How will Obama pay such a price, when he is not able to pay the negligible price of an operation he decided to execute in Syria?”