Normally, when Israel finds itself at the center of a US war argument, it is Israeli officials that put themselves there. In Syria, it has been the Obama Administration’s choice, as they try to paint their plans to attack Syria as about “protecting Israel.”

That’s part of the rhetorical battle that Secretary of State John Kerry and others seem desperate to push, and the State Department announced today that Kerry had called Netanyahu to “reassure” him of the administration’s continued intention to attack Syria.

That call might play well in lobbying to Congress, but it reportedly doesn’t sit well with much of Israel’s leadership, which is said to be extremely uncomfortable with the Obama Administration’s decision to make the war somehow about them.

It’s not surprising, either, for while many in Israel already feared that the US attack on Syria would expose them to “retaliatory” strikes, the Obama Administration’s efforts to brand it as a war for Israel have made it virtually a foregone conclusion that the victims of the US strikes will see them as coming on behalf of Israel.