LONDON • Timing, as they say, is everything. So, when the Israeli government recently admitted, more than a decade after the event, that it was indeed responsible for destroying a nuclear reactor in Syria back in 2007, diplomats and analysts concluded that the revelations were intended more as a topical warning.

After all, Israel's responsibility for that fateful air raid on the Syrian reactor on the night of Sept 5, 2007 was always one of the Middle East's worst-kept secrets; Israel's military footprint was obvious within days after the raid, and although Israeli officials kept mum, their operation was subsequently documented in every book written by every single senior member of the US administration.