CIA veterans in a 2009 report at Brookings: the US could "encourage - and perhaps even assist - the Israelis in conducting the strikes" on Iran to deflect retaliation from US
Yes and the US assets and oil interests in the region are toast if things get much hotter.
Interpreting the Iranians' move to delegitimize the US on a historic scale as weakness is just another example of the sociopathy and arrogance which runs through the imperialist power structure