An Israeli official told an Israeli news outlet Thursday that Israel is expected to return to near pre-war levels of life — a return to near normalcy — as Israel will continue to bombard targets deep inside Iran.

Using the metaphor of a root canal, the official said that completing a root canal — i.e., a permanent solution — would have been impossible to achieve in 12 days, referring to the 12-day war in June. Knowing that more work would be required to finish the job, the IDF had already begun planning for the next round of fighting back then.

To weaken the regime permanently or end it, Israel must achieve air superiority and the destruction of Iran’s arsenal of surface-to-surface missiles, the official said. But he acknowledged the difficulty of completing those two tasks.

“I’m not fooling myself that we’ll be able to completely purge it, but we can get to a better place, and that’s the aspiration,” he said. But he added that the preparations for the current round of fighting show that the efforts are paying off.

“The fact that the aircraft are now doing four times more than they did in Operation Rising Lion required preparation,” he said. “There are pilots who flew to Iran three times a day — it’s insane, and for that you need physiological preparation and to build an envelope that allows staying power.”

The Israelis are working feverishly to deplete Iran’s stockpiles as quickly as possible for two reasons: One, they need to finish the job before President Donald Trump ends the war; and two, they need to diminish Iran’s lethal strikes on Israel. This requires relentless attacks on Iran’s air defense systems and launching pads.

The official said that previously, the Americans did not view Iran’s weapons arsenal as a threat. That has since changed, but the only way to permanently cripple Iran’s ability to keep producing ballistic missiles and eventually achieve production of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could potentially reach the United States is to engage in a lengthy campaign of incessant strikes.