“Given that the US military will be picking up the pieces and paying in blood and treasure for any attack, I think they damn well should inform us.”
I think it’s unlikely that Israel will overtly attack Iran while Obama is in office. Obama has shown every indication that he’d punish Israel and probably help, at least covertly, Iran. I think that Israel has focused all its energies on collapsing the Iranian regime from within. They will continue in that direction until the moment before they feel they have no other option than to strike at an actual nuclear weapon that is ready on the launch pad.
Also, I believe that Iran supplies 20% of the world’s oil. Any attack would necessarily stop that supply as that is the only target available to the Israelis. The nuclear facilities are too spread out and too deeply buried and protected for an attack on the facilities to have any real effect. That leaves only the oil. Such an attack would cause world-wide starvation and economic collapse. Israel does not want to be the “cause” of that.
Iran produces 4.8% of the world’s oil. Not 20%.
That may not be not the only target available to the Israelis, Israel has at least 200, probably closer to 300, nukes and the means to deliver them practically anywhere on earth with it's own submarine-launched ballistic missiles and it's highly efficient air force. Israel may not have traditional long range bombers that can reach Iran with nukes, but over the past few years they have modified purchased US aircraft such as the US F-16 that is fast approaching obsolescence in our air force into modernized mid-range bombers that can.