And now I shall go on one of my famous rants. This time about Israel’s attempts to sabotage American diplomacy with Iran. Pull up a chair. Treat yourself to a tasty beverage. Perhaps a lime-flavored Spindrift.

The more things change, the more Israeli officials stay the same: As American and Iranian officials work to revive their nuclear deal, their Israeli counterparts are laboring to kill it.

This reveals an inconvenient truth: 30 years of Israeli policy have failed because Iran’s status as a de facto nuclear state has been recognized by the international community, and US-Iran relations are gradually improving without the approval that Israel thought it had to give.

Israel’s failure to block these geopolitical shifts has altered the regional balance of power vis-à-vis Iran. Unless it follows America’s lead and adapts, Israel’s mistakes may damage its strategic interests indefinitely.

Since the early 1990s, Israel’s goal has been to compel America to undermine Iran politically, economically and militarily. According this logic, a weakened Iran would be less likely to challenge Israel’s military strategic edge, which is essentially Israeli military hegemony.

What America viewed as containment of Iran, Israel viewed as support for its de facto military hegemony.

As the US commenced serious nuclear diplomacy with Iran, Israel doubled down on its 30-year goal because it perceived Washington and Tehran’s success at the negotiating table coming at its own strategic expense.

In reality, by opposing America’s nuclear diplomacy with, Israel is creating a strategic isolation of its own making.

In my conversations with Israeli officials, most have privately conceded that any viable nuclear deal with Iran would include enrichment on Iranian soil at an internationally agreed-upon level, strict inspections and verification mechanisms, and significant sanctions relief.

However, this acknowledgement rarely diminished their resolve to stop it from becoming a reality because it meant Iran would achieve a strategic middle ground: nuclear latency.

Latency de facto recognizes Iran’s current status as a country making significant progress in civilian nuclear energy without developing key expertise to produce a nuclear weapon.

Through the JCPOA, Iran’s status as a nuclear state did not receive a boost. Instead, the technical aspects of Iran’s nuclear program were kept at manageable levels, and a ceiling was built at those levels to ensure Iran cannot surpass them and venture into military territory.

Israel wants to tear Iran’s nuclear program down to ground zero, but that is neither achievable nor necessary. As MIT-trained nuclear physicist and former US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz repeatedly confirmed, the JCPOA blocks Iran’s four pathways to a nuclear weapon.

Nuclear latency does not violate Iran’s international commitments — hence the United Nations Security Council resolution that no longer deems Iran’s nuclear program illegal.

However, latency does provide Iran with a geostrategic equalizer in a region where America’s backing has allowed Israel to sit unchecked at the top of the pecking order for decades. And therein lies the rub.

Precisely because latency provides Iran with some of the same deterrent effects as an actual nuclear weapon, Israel correctly calculates that the JCPOA shifts the regional balance of power by reducing its own maneuverability and deterrent capabilities.

If Israel had any hopes of bombing Iran, those hopes died with the JCPOA.

Iran’s mastery of the nuclear fuel cycle helped compel America to seal the nuclear deal in order to avoid war.

And with that came de facto recognition of Iran as a regional power and increased strategic significance in the region vis-à-vis Israel, given the Israel’s aforementioned goal of trying to compel America to undermine Iran over the past 30 years.

There is no sign of Israel trying to leverage opportunities for U.S.-Iran collaboration in the Middle East. Instead, by trying to prevent such cooperation through a zero-sum approach to regional security, the Israeli government has left itself in a worse strategic position.

If Israel doesn’t adjust, its own actions may turn its fear of abandonment into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Israel can’t balance and contain Iran without US support, and America is no longer willing to pay the costly price to uphold Israel’s preferred policy of containment.

The days of Israel free riding on a US-enforced regional security framework based on Iran’s exclusion — a framework that contradicts the natural balance of power — are numbered. US officials recognize the diminishing returns and implausible sustainability over the long run.

If Israel shows greater flexibility, it can still influence any post-nuclear deal agenda between the United States and Iran. If Israel digs in its heels, it will increasingly become a liability rather than a strategic asset to the United States.

Israel shot itself in the foot by opposing the JCPOA rather than helping to shape it. Now Israel must choose: Shoot itself in the other foot by trying to kill the deal, or cut its losses and walk with a limp. The cost of sabotage outweighs the cost of Israel accepting reality.