Iran's Nuclear Program and the Israeli-Iranian Rivalry in the Post Revolutionary Era

Abstract

The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran led to a set of major shifts in the Middle East and an anti-Israeli stance became a central approach of the revolutionaries. Up to 1979, however, Tel Aviv had a close relationship with Tehran whose enmity with its Arab neighbours was anchored in a historical struggle for regional supremacy. Israel has remained an enemy of Islam and the Muslims for the revolutionary leaders and as Iran's power grew Israel's anxiety increased accordingly. A new division of power in the region and Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons led to a direct rivalry between Iran and Israel and consequently many Israelis have come to regard Iran and its nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel that has to be halted. This article explores the roots of enmity between these two countries, scrutinizes the threats of a nuclear armed Iran for Israel and attempts to determine what kind of measures might work to convince Iran to renounce its nuclear program. The article has four sections with the first section covering the history of the relations and the origins of hostility between Iran and Israel. The second section provides a brief overview of how the division of regional power led to direct rivalry between Tehran and Tel Aviv. The third section details Iran's nuclear program and examines its threats to Israel and the last section covers the current sanctions debate over what type of measures might work to compel Iran to renounce its nuclear weapons.

Notes

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² Shmuel Bar, Iranian Defense Doctrine and Decision Making Institute for Policy and Strategy, 2004a.

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⁴ Trita Parsi, Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States (USA: Yale University Press, 2007).

⁵ Steven Simon, ‘Iran and Israel’, The Iran Premier. http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/iran-and-israel

⁶ Vladimir Simonov, ‘Iran-Israel Relations Yesterday and Today, Veterans Today’, Veterans Today (October 12, 2013). http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/10/12/iran-israel-relations-yesterday-and-today/, Steven Simon, ‘Iran and Israel’, The Iran Premier. http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/iran-and-israel

⁷ Simonov, ‘Iran-Israel Relations Yesterday and Today’.

⁸ Sohrab Sobhani, ‘The Pragmatic Entente: Israeli-Iranian Relations, 1948-88’, Recherche, 67(2) (1989), p.165., Ehud Eilam, ‘A New Take on the Iranian -Israeli Conflict’, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, 2(5) (2008), pp. 11–21.

⁹ Simonov, ‘Iran-Israel Relations Yesterday and Today’.

¹⁰ Behrouz Souresrafil, Khomeini and Israel (London: Researchers, 1988); Karim Sadjadpour, and Afshin Molavi, ‘Is Iran Rethinking its Position on Israel?’, Jewishworldreview (2003). Accessed November 4, 2010. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1103/israel_iran.php3

¹¹ Simonov, ‘Iran-Israel Relations Yesterday and Today’.

¹² Trita Parsi, Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States (USA: Yale University Press, 2007)

¹³ Menashe Amir, ‘Iran and Hezbollah’, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1997). Accessed 2011. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/The+Iranian+Threat/Support+of+terror/iran

¹⁴ Menashri, ‘Iran and Israel: A Couple at Odds’, Eilam, ‘A New Take on the Iranian -Israeli Conflict’.

¹⁵ Menashri, ‘Iran and Israel: A Couple at Odds’.

¹⁶ Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, Sahifey-e Nour (Tehran: Islamic Revolution's Documents Organization in Ministry of Guidance, 1980), p. 92.

¹⁷ Menashri, ‘Iran and Israel: A Couple at Odds’.

¹⁸ Mahdi Ahouie, ‘Iranian Anti-Zionism and the Holocaust’, Radical History Review 105 (2009), pp. 58–78, pp. 60–62.

¹⁹ Patrick Tyler, A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East–from the Cold War to the War on Terror (New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2010), p. 310.

²⁰ Sobhani, ‘The Pragmatic Entente: Israeli-Iranian Relations, 1948–88’.

²¹ Crooke Alastair, ‘Talking to Hamas’, Prospect-London-Prospect Publishing Limited- 123 (2006), p. 48.

²² Behrouz Souresrafil, Khomeini and Israel (London: Researchers, 1988), p. 114; Reese W. Erlich, The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of US Policy and the Middle East Crisis (USA: Polipoint Press, 2007), p. 37.

²³ Parsi, ‘Treacherous Alliance’, p. 127.

²⁴ Patrick Tyler, A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East–from the Cold War to the War on Terror (New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2010), p. 310.

²⁵ Stanley A. Weiss, ‘Israel and Iran: The Bonds that Tie Persians and Jews’, The New York Times (July 10, 2006).

²⁶ Crooke Alastair, ‘The Strange Tale of Iran and Israel’, Le Monde diplomatique, Le Monde diplomatique (2009). Accessed February 2011. http://mondediplo.com/2009/02/05iran

²⁷ Patrick Tyler, A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East–from the Cold War to the War on Terror (New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2010), p. 310.

²⁸ Thomas Latschan, ‘Iran und Israel: The Best of Enemies’, Deutsche Welle (February 17, 2014). Accessed February 2014. http://www.dw.de/iran-und-israel-the-best-of-enemies/a-17437981

²⁹ Ibid.

³⁰ Ibid.

³¹ Simon, ‘Iran-Israel’.

³² Trita Parsi, ‘Israel Gets Real on Iran’, Atlanticfreepress (2008). Accessed February 2011. http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/5615-israel-gets-real-on-iran-.html

³³ Simon, ‘Iran-Israel’.

³⁴ Ibid.

³⁵ Alastair, ‘The Strange Tale of Iran and Israel’.

³⁶ Alastair, ‘The Strange Tale of Iran and Israel’.

³⁷ Scott Peterson, ‘Imminent Iran Nuclear Threat? A Timeline of Warnings Since 1979’, The Christian Science Monitor (November 8, 2011).

³⁸ Clyde Haberman, ‘The World: Israel Focuses on the Threat Beyond the Arabs – in Iran’, The New York Times (November 8, 1992).

³⁹ Parsi, ‘Treacherous Alliance’, p. 127.

⁴⁰ Gareth Porter, ‘Iran's Anti-Israel Rhetoric Aimed at Arab Opinion’, Anti war, Anti War (2009). Accessed 2011. http://www.antiwar.com/porter/?articleid = 14379

⁴¹ Parsi, ‘Treacherous Alliance’.

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⁴³ Shmuel Bar, Iranian Defense Doctrine and Decision Making Institute for Policy and Strategy, 2004b.

⁴⁴ Abdollah Nouri, Shawkaran-i Eslah: Defa'iat-i Abdollah Nouri (Hemlock For Advocate of Reform), (Tehran, Tarhe Naw, 2000), p. 144.

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⁴⁹ Hassan Rouhani, Amniat-i Meli va Diplomaci-'i Hasteh'i ‘National Security and Nuclear Diplomacy’ (Tehran: Markaz-i Tahqiqat-i Estiratizhik, 2012), p. 62.

⁵⁰ Scott Ritter, Target Iran: The Truth about the White House's Plans for Regime Change (New York: Nation Books, 2007), p. xxv; Julian Dawson, A Constructivist Approach to the US-Iranian Nuclear Problem (Alberta: University of Calgary, The Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, 2011), p. 79.

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⁵⁷ Max Fisher, ‘9 Questions about Iran's Nuclear Program you were too Embarrassed to Ask’, The Washington Post (November 25, 2013).

⁵⁸ Gareth Porter, ‘Politics: Israeli Realism on Iran Belies Threat Rhetoric’, Inter Press Service (IPS) (January 30, 2007). Accessed February 2014. http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews = 36369

⁵⁹ Nathan Gardels, ‘Abizaid: “Iran Is Not a Suicide State: Deterrence Will Work”’, Huffington Post (July 23, 2008).

⁶⁰ Paul Pillar, ‘We Can Live with a Nuclear Iran’, Washington Monthly (March/April 2012).

⁶¹ Porter, ‘Politics’.

⁶² Louis Rene Beres, ‘How to Deter an Irrational Nuclear Iran’, US NEWS (April 13, 2012). Accessed February 2014. http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2012/04/13/how-to-deter-an-irrational-nuclear-iran

⁶³ Fisher, ‘9 Questions about Iran's Nuclear Program You Were too Embarrassed to Ask’.

⁶⁴ L.E. Davis, J. Martini, and A. Nader, Iran's Nuclear Future: Critical US Policy Choices Rand Corporation, 2011).

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⁶⁸ Steven David, ‘With Nothing to Lose: The Limits of a Rational Iran’, The American Interest (May/June 2013).

⁶⁹ Camilla Sundberg, ‘The Defensive Iran: Rethinking Realism in the Case of Iran's Nuclear Programme’, e-International Relations (August 10, 2013). Accessed February 2014. http://www.e-ir.info/2013/08/10/the-defensive-iran-rethinking-realism-in-the-case-of-irans-nuclear-programme/?utm_source = twitterfeed&utm_medium = facebook#_ftnref18

⁷⁰ Freerepublic, ‘Scholar: MAD Doctrine Does Not Apply to Iran (Bernard Lewis)’, Free Republic, February 29, 2008. Accessed February 2014. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1978080/posts, Aaron Goldstein, ‘Iran's Regime is Inherently Irrational’, The American Spectator, The American Spectator (March 15, 2013). Accessed May 2013. http://spectator.org/blog/2012/03/15/irans-regime-is-inherently-irr

⁷¹ David Meyers, ‘Iran Could Use a Nuclear Weapon Against Israel and Get Away with It’, The Daily Caller (May 23, 2013).

⁷² Fathi, ‘Iran's President Says Israel Must Be “Wiped Off the Map”’; Ewen MacAskill and Chris McGreal, ‘Israel Should Be Wiped Off Map, Says Iran's President’, The Guardian, October 27, 2005; Elad Benari, ‘Iran Threatens to Annihilate Israel if U.S. Attacks’, Israel National News, May 30, 2014. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/181232#.U-zAi_mSybw.; Elad Benari, ‘Iran's Supreme Leader Threatens Israel, U.S.’, Israel National News, February 2, 2012.

⁷³ Joshua Teitelbaum and Michael Segall, ‘The Iranian Leadership's Continuing Declarations of Intent to Destroy Israel 2009–2012’, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (2012). Accessed May 2013. http://jcpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/IransIntent2012b.pdf?page=6

⁷⁴ Reuters, ‘Iran Leader Urges Destruction of “Cancerous” Israel’, Reuters (December 15, 2000).

⁷⁵ Fars News Agency, Tel Aviv ra ba Khak Yeksan Mikunim, March 21, 2013. Accessed April 2013. http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn = 13920101000380

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⁷⁷ Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), October 26, 2005. Accessed May 2013. http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID = News-603209

⁷⁸ Kasra Naji, Ahmadinejad: The Secret History of Iran's Radical Leader (University of California Press, 2008), p. 49.

⁷⁹ Eilam, ‘A New Take on the Iranian -Israeli Conflict’.

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⁸⁵ David, ‘With Nothing to Lose’.

⁸⁶ Benjamin Buch, and Scott D. Sagan, ‘Our Red Lines and Theirs’, Foreign Policy (December 13, 2013).

⁸⁷ David, ‘With Nothing to Lose’.

⁸⁸ Ibid.

⁸⁹ Ofira Seliktar and Lee E. Dutter, ‘Assessing the Rationality of Autocrats: The Case of Saddam Hussein’, International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 22(2) (2009), pp. 275–297.

⁹⁰ Ofira Seliktar, Interview with Author, January 15, 2013.

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¹⁰¹ Brendan Taylor, Sanctions as Grand Strategy (London: Routledge, 2012).

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