Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Iran has emerged as one of the most vocal countries opposing Israel’s brutal actions in Gaza. This is in line with Tehran’s anti-Israel foreign policy.

The Palestinian issue has been at the center of the conflict for decades. Tehran has warned Israel and its closest ally, the United States (US), that war with Hamas could spread as Tel Aviv steps up attacks outside Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israel has bombed positions in Lebanon and Syria, two countries with a large Iranian presence.

So how did the relationship between Iran and Israel, which eventually became the number one rivalry in the Middle East, begin? The following summary is quoted Al JazeeraTuesday (7/11/2023).

The Beginning of the Split

Under the Pahlavi dynasty, which ruled from 1925 until it was overthrown in the 1979 revolution, relations between Iran and Israel were anything but hostile. In fact, Iran is the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel after the country was founded in 1948.

Iran is one of 11 members of a special UN committee formed in 1947 to devise a solution for Palestine after British control of the region ended. They were one of three to vote against the UN’s planned partition of Palestine, centering on concerns that it would increase violence in the region for generations to come.

“Iran, together with India and Yugoslavia, put forward an alternative plan, a federative solution which is to keep Palestine as one state with one parliament but divided into Arab and Jewish areas,” Oxford University historian Eirik Kvindesland told Al Jazeera.

“It was Iran’s compromise to try to maintain positive relations with pro-Zionist Western countries and the Zionist movement itself, and also with neighboring Arab and Muslim countries.”

But two years after Israel managed to seize more territory than the UN had agreed to after the start of the first Arab-Israeli War in 1948, Iran, then under the leadership of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, became the second Muslim-majority country after Turkey to officially recognize Israel.

Leading up to the founding of Israel in 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians were forcibly evicted from their homes by Zionist militias. Palestinians call the forced displacement and confiscation of their property the Nakba, Arabic for disaster.

Kvindesland said Tehran’s move in the incident was mainly to manage Iran’s assets in Palestine because around 2,000 Iranians live there and their property was confiscated by the Israeli army during the war. But apart from that, Israel also applies its “peripheral doctrine” to Tehran.

“To end his isolation in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion established ties with non-Arab countries on the ‘periphery’ of the Middle East, in what became known as the fringe doctrine. This approach also included Ethiopia, but so far Iran and Turkey is the most successful approach,” Kvindesland said.

Things changed after Mohammad Mosaddegh became Prime Minister of Iran in 1951 when he spearheaded the nationalization of the country’s oil industry, which was monopolized by Britain. Mosaddegh cut ties with Israel, which he said served Western interests in the region.

According to Kvindesland, the efforts of Mosaddegh and his National Front political organization to nationalize oil, expel British colonial rule, and weaken the monarchy were the main story of Iran at that time. Tehran’s relations with Israel began to deteriorate.

“There is anti-Zionist mobilization in Iran. There is (influential Shia cleric) Navvab Safavi, one of the most famous figures who carried out strong propaganda against Zionism and the establishment of Israel. But for Mosaddegh, the main goal was to gain support from the surrounding Arab countries to combat British control of the oil industry,” Kvindesland added.

Things changed dramatically when Mosaddegh’s government was overthrown in a coup organized by British and US intelligence agencies in 1953. The coup reinstated a shah who became a staunch ally of the West in the region.

Israel established a de facto embassy in Tehran, and the two eventually exchanged ambassadors in the 1970s. Trade relations grew, and Iran soon became Israel’s main oil provider.

Tehran and Tel Aviv also have extensive military and security cooperation, but much of it is kept secret to avoid provoking Arab countries in the region.

“Israel needs Iran more than Iran needs Israel. Israel has always been a proactive party, but the shah also wanted a way to improve Iran’s relations with the US, and at that time Israel was seen as a good way to achieve that goal,” said Kvindesland.

Iran’s Post-Revolutionary Relations

In 1979, the shah was overthrown in a revolution. This ultimately made Iran the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution, brought a new worldview that largely championed Islam and against “arrogant” and oppressive world powers. Palestine is one of the countries that is considered oppressed by great powers.

This ultimately made Israel in Iran known as the “Little Satan” to the “Big Satan” namely the US.

Tehran cut all ties with Israel and citizens can no longer travel between the two countries due to the canceled routes. The Israeli embassy in Tehran was changed to the Palestinian embassy.

Khomeini also declared every last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan as Quds Day, and since then large demonstrations have been held on that day in support of Palestinians throughout Iran. Jerusalem is known as Al Quds in Arabic.

Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft told Al Jazeera that Khomeini opposed the framing of the Palestinian issue as an Arab nationalist cause and sought to transform it into an Islamic cause.

“To overcome the Arab-Persian divide and the Sunni-Shia divide, Iran is taking a much more aggressive position on the Palestinian issue to demonstrate the credibility of its leadership in the Islamic world and put the Arab regimes allied with the US on the defensive,” he said.

This hostility grew over decades as both sides sought to strengthen and expand their power and influence in the region. Now, Iran supports a “resistance axis” network consisting of political and armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Over the years, Israel has supported various groups that strongly oppose Iran’s stance. Tehran says these include a number of groups it designates as terrorist organizations such as Mojahedin E Khalq (MEK), an organization based in Europe, Sunni organizations in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, and Kurdish armed groups based in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Other Sources of Hostility

Tensions between Iran and Israel are not limited to ideology or proxy groups. The two are suspected of being behind a long series of attacks against each other’s interests inside and outside their territories.

But they openly deny it. This is what makes their operations known as “shadow war” which is becoming more widespread as hostilities increase.

Iran’s nuclear program has been at the center of some of its largest attacks. Israel, which is thought to secretly possess dozens of nuclear weapons, has vowed never to let Iran develop a nuclear bomb.

Over the years, there have been numerous sabotage attacks on Iran’s nuclear and military facilities that Tehran blamed on Israel. Iran also regularly publishes news about efforts to thwart more sabotage attacks.

The attacks also targeted personnel, including a number of prominent nuclear scientists. The most daring assassination occurred in 2020 when Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was shot dead using a satellite-monitored and AI-controlled machine gun by Israel.

Peace Opportunities

Several Arab countries in the region have chosen to normalize their relations with Israel as they seek more support from the West. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, another major country in the region, this year restored diplomatic ties with Iran after a seven-year rift following a China-brokered agreement in March.

The US has attempted to broker a similar deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Prospects for normalization between Tel Aviv and Riyadh have been delayed, at least for now, as Israel continues to bomb Gaza.

Parsi from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft said that for Iran currently, restoring relations with Israel is impossible. According to him, all alliances with Israel had disappeared in the early 1990s.

Tehran opposes US hegemony in the Middle East while Israel has consistently rejected Washington’s efforts to repatriate troops from the region. Iran-linked groups regularly attack US bases in Iraq and Syria.

“This is a competition for dominance and power in the region, the two countries have been engaged in low-level war for more than a decade,” Parsi said.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

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