An anonymous high-level Israel intel source was quoted in the Israeli media Aug. 7 as saying that the renewed US sanctions imposed this week on Iran “will bring Iran to its knees.’’ The source also argued that chances are good that the country will be forced to return to the negotiating table with the six world powers that cut the nuclear agreement and agree to a modification and to limitations on its continued expansion in the Middle East.

These words are overly optimistic and exaggerate the accepted opinion that prevails in the Israeli security system. But the quote does reflect the high-to-euphoric spirits in Israel following the US administration's policy changes toward Iran, a country Israel views as a true existential threat. Words that were once uttered behind closed doors or spoken hesitantly have become accepted facts in today’s Israel. In a radio interview Aug. 7, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan verified this assessment and the Israeli hope that the ayatollah regime will indeed fall in the near future.

According to close associates of the prime minister, everything that is happening now on the American-Iranian-Israeli front was planned in Israel, “marketed” to President Donald Trump by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is now being implemented to “fix it or nix it,” the slogan coined by Netanyahu regarding the nuclear agreement. According to Israeli diplomatic sources, Trump is following Netanyahu's plan meticulously.

“First of all, he abandoned the agreement,” a high-level political source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “Afterward he imposed the sanctions in two stages, so that the pressures on Tehran would continue to increase. Then he announced that there’s a possibility for negotiations and agreed to maintaining contacts with Iran in order to change the agreement. And that is exactly what Netanyahu wanted to happen.”