Last Friday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran issued what could be a harbinger for Europe, warning her that continued support for Israel could lead to vengeance by those angry about the Palestinian plight. Though he did not care to elaborate on what these acts of revenge might entail, one can only imagine clandestinely organized Shi'ite militia groups summoned by the Ayatollahs to wreck havoc.
For a well-educated politician to say that he believes Israel should be wiped off the map reveals to us that he knows little about his nation's history. If he were to peruse the books of Iran's rich historical epic, those dusty heaps of paper would tell him a lot more about foreign policy moves than those scriptures.
The relationship of enmity that currently exists between Israel and Iran is something of an anomaly in history. After Cyrus the Great emancipated the Israelites from Babylonian slavery, he forged an ancient bond of common interests that closely tied the Persians and Jews into a strategic alliance.
It is pretty ironic that President Ahmadinejad goes around denying the Holocaust, because he'll be surprised to find that during World War II, Iranian diplomats saved thousands of Jews who were fleeing the Nazi perpetrated Holocaust. Iran became an escape passage for Jews fleeing to Israel before and after the 1948 War of Independence. After the establishment of Israel, Iran then became one of the first countries in the Muslim world to establish official ties with the new state.
In the early years after World War II, the birth of a democratic Israel in a sea of Arab autocracy made it stick out like a sore thumb. Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's rise to power through American intervention naturally made him receptive to Israel's search for security. Who else do you turn to when you are surrounded by a bunch of suspicious Sunni's? Their strategic partnership ensured the steady flow of arms and intelligence into Iran, and buttressed Israel's "periphery policy" of strategic non-Arab alliances. As a result, it played no part in any of the three wars in the subsequent decades, and continued to pump oil even during the OPEC embargo in the 1970's.
Speaking of hatred and arms, it is also interesting to note that after the 1979 revolution, the mutual distrust that Israel and Iran both felt towards Iraq provided a common ground for continued ties, even if conducted behind the scenes. Even after Ayatollah Khomeini severed all diplomatic ties with the state of Israel, Israel continued to supply weapons into the country well into the 1980's. Who could forget their role as the middlemen in favor of the arms-for-hostages deal that marred the Reagan administration?
So, there are all these indications that Israel and Iran once had a clientele relationship in the past. It may sound hard to believe in light of Iran's increasing antagonism towards Israel, but many experts say that dialogue may benefit both countries more than they think.
It seems America's liberation attempts have enacted a coup de grace for Iraq, as it becomes embroiled in a civil war divided along ethnic boundaries. In a dominant Sunni sea, a war over influence in the Levant could be foreseeable, and Shi'ite Iran may once again turn to Israel in the face of a more menacing adversary.
When people look back at Iran's role during the summer conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, it makes envisioning a partnership all the more impossible. North Korea's continued deviance will only embolden Tehran to move forward with its nuclear program. Sanctions seem certain, and who knows where that could lead. On an optimistic level, a war with America instigated by Iran does not seem like a risk the Ayatollahs are willing to take; it would be political suicide, kind of like pitting a baby seal against a polar bear. The conservative clergy's power seems to be waning, and the President's puppet power and position within the Iranian political structure clears up a lot of the misperceptions and truths behind all that anti-Semitic, religious rhetoric.
As the United Nations Security Council deliberates taking harsher measures against the Iranian regime, my bet is that Iran will eventually come to the tables. Maybe they already have, and we just don't know about it, but I am going to assume that the Ayatollahs want to retain their power and maintain the current status quo within the Persian realm. We just have to wait and see who makes the first move.
