On the eve of the dramatic announcement about the framework agreement reached between six world powers and Iran, some elected and unelected officials in Jerusalem suggested that the name of the peaceful Swiss town of Lausanne should be changed to a far more loaded name: Munich, a reference to the historic agreement on the eve of World War II.

Israel’s leadership prepared a sharp counteroffensive for the unveiling, if and when, of the “shameful agreement of surrender,” Chamberlain-style, between Iran and the world powers. In interviews he granted over the past two weeks, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzachi Hanegbi described the emerging agreement and the negotiations that preceded it between Iran and the world powers as “moral bankruptcy.”

Hanegbi, one of the most sober and experienced politicians in Israel, has also been Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s close associate for the past two years. Together with him, other experts and associates all participated in a frenzied round of interviews and repeated declarations on an almost daily basis. Chief among them was Minister of Intelligence Yuval Steinitz, in addition to defense officials, former Mossad operatives and, of course, Netanyahu himself.

On the evening of April 2, when Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini faced the press, Jerusalem was shocked into silence.