In answer to your final question. You asked if the US is making this stuff up for Israel's sake.

To begin with, the question itself is mistaken. US intelligence is not independently gathered. The US intelligence community is making statements based on things that they're told by Israeli government sources. So they aren't making anything up, because all they're doing is repeating what someone else said.

Second, there is no single motive that captures the US's goals. Different people within the US government have their own objectives. Supporting Israel is one objective that some people have, in addition to all of their other objectives.