“For the time being,” says a high-ranking Israeli defense official, “the damage done by all the talk about a strike on Syria considerably outweighs its benefits, if and when such a strike does take place.”

The assessment in Israel is that this farce will end with the firing of a few dozen or a few hundred Tomahawk missiles at strategic objectives of the Syrian regime. For two days, (Aug. 28-29), the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have been taking into account the possibility that nothing will happen in the end. Some among Israel’s top brass would like to keep it this way for the present time, hoping that US President Barack Obama will somehow be able to get off his high horse without falling on his head.

In view of the fact that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has received a fantastically long warning of several days about a strike, the targets will probably be empty. The strike would raise a bit of dust and produce some great photos, though. It will allow Obama to deliver a sanctimonious speech, and routine life in Syria will resume in no time. Or maybe this should be corrected to “routine death.”

If this were to be the case, it would have been better not to embark on this adventure to begin with, Israeli officials maintain. Given that the main objective of the likely American move is deterrence, it will be totally missed if Assad comes off so easily in the wake of an embarrassing international diplomatic commotion that consisted of a white night at the British parliament, marathon persuasion campaigns at Congress in Washington, Iranian war mongering and Syrian threats and incitement.