This has become almost a routine occurrence in the region: A Syrian target is bombed in the wee hours of the night. Fighter jets stealthily make their way there and fire missiles from a distance. The target — be it an ammunition depot on the outskirts of an airport, a missile stockpile in a coastal city, a weaponry convoy bound for Beirut from Damascus or a nuclear reactor built in a desert area — is smoothly destroyed. No one claims responsibility.

The usual rumors point at Israel, which, of course, keeps mum. Then the United States comes along, spilling the beans. This is done either officially (in his memoirs, former US President George W. Bush explicitly said that Israel had bombed the Syrian reactor at Deir ez-Zor in 2007), less officially or implicitly. But invariably, Israel is sacrificed to the international media by its greatest ally.

The latest incident took place when at least three well-placed American sources told CNN that it was Israel that had destroyed the Yakhont shore-to-sea missile depot in Latakia.

The only remaining controversy pertains to the modus operandi: Israeli fighter aircraft that took off from a base in Turkey (which sounds outlandish), a Dolphin-class submarine that fired a cruise missile from the Mediterranean (which makes no sense) or just a simple, surgical and typical operation of the Israeli air force based on excellent real-time intelligence. The bottom line is always the same: Israel allegedly bombs and is then sacrificed by the United States. What on earth is going on here?