The Complex History Behind the Iran-Israel Conflict

The Golden Years of Unlikely Friendship

Imagine two countries that were once close allies, sharing intelligence, trading oil, and even cooperating on military projects. That's exactly what Iran and Israel looked like for decades.

Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel as a sovereign state after Turkey. After the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948, Israel and Iran maintained close ties.

While Iran was ruled by the Pahlavi dynasty for more than a half-century, Iranian-Israeli bilateral relations were far from hostile. Iran was one of the first Muslim countries to recognize the new state of Israel.

The relationship was built on practical considerations, with both nations sharing a common concern about Arab powers in the region. During this period, the two countries even engaged in extensive military cooperation, with Israel helping Iran develop advanced weapons systems and Iran providing crucial oil supplies to Israel.

Israel was involved in the arming of Iran during the Pahlavi dynasty: Project "Flower" Tzur (see also Project Flower), a joint collaboration between Iran and Israel, aimed to develop a "state-of-the-art sea-to-sea missile, an advanced version of the U.S. Harpoon missile, with a range of 200 kilometers".

Israeli Defense Minister General Ezer Weizmann and Iranian Vice Minister of War General Hassan Toufanian discussed the co-production of Israel's Jericho-2 missile, code named Project Flower.

The Shah's Surprising Opposition to Israeli Statehood

Here's something that might shock you: even when Iran and Israel were friendly, Iran had initially opposed Israel's creation. In 1947, Iran was one of the 11 members that formed the Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) charged to investigate the cause of the conflict in Palestine Mandate, and, if possible, devise a solution.

After much deliberation the committee presented a Partition Plan for Palestine, which had the support of 8 of the 11 members of UNSCOP. Iran along with India and Yugoslavia opposed the plan, predicting it would lead to an escalation of violence.

Arguing that peace could only be established through a single federal state, Iran voted against the partition plan when it was adopted by the UN General Assembly. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi predicted that the partition would lead to generations of fighting.

The Shah's prediction proved remarkably accurate. In Spring of 1948, 30,000 Iranians in Tehran gathered to protest against the establishment of Israel.

Despite this early opposition, pragmatic political considerations soon led to a complete reversal of Iran's position. The Cold War dynamics and shared strategic interests in countering Soviet influence in the region pushed the two countries together.

This shift shows how quickly geopolitical alliances can change when national interests align.

The 1979 Revolution That Changed Everything

The story of Iran-Israel relations takes a dramatic turn on February 11, 1979. The origins of the rivalry between the Islamic Republic and the Jewish State traces back to the overthrow of Israel's close ally, the authoritarian Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, by Ayatollah Rohullah Khomeini's forces in Iran in 1979.

Faced with an army mutiny and violent demonstrations against his rule, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the leader of Iran since 1941, is forced to flee the country. Fourteen days later, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the Islamic revolution, returned after 15 years of exile and took control of Iran.

The revolution wasn't just a change of government; it was a complete ideological transformation. The shah's dependence on the United States, his close ties with Israel—then engaged in extended hostilities with the overwhelmingly Muslim Arab states—and his regime's ill-considered economic policies served to fuel the potency of dissident rhetoric with the masses.

The new regime immediately adopted a radically different stance toward Israel. Israel had relations with Iran under the Shah, but relations were cut on 18 February 1979 when Iran adopted an anti-Zionist stance.

The former Israeli embassy in Tehran was handed over to the PLO, and Iran has allied and funded several anti-Israeli Islamist militant groups since.

How America Created the Foundation for Future Conflict

The roots of Iran's anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment trace back to a controversial CIA operation in 1953. In 1953, amid a power struggle between Mohammed Reza Shah and Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, the U.S.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.K. Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) orchestrated a coup against Mosaddegh's government.

In August 1953, Mohammad Reza attempted to dismiss Mosaddeq, but the premier's popular support was so great that the shah himself was forced out of Iran. A few days later, British and U.S.

intelligence agents orchestrated a stunning coup d'etat against Mosaddeq, and the shah returned to take power as the sole leader of Iran. He repealed Mosaddeq's legislation and became a close Cold War ally of the United States in the Middle East.

This intervention created deep resentment among Iranians against Western interference in their affairs. Over time, it would become painfully clear that the costs of the coup in stoking paranoia, enabling repression, and undermining the Pahlavis' legitimacy vastly outweighed its short-term benefits, but at the time the preoccupation with the Cold War obscured Iranian resentment fueled by the American intervention.

When Khomeini came to power, this historical grievance became part of the revolutionary narrative. Khomeini was released after eight months of house arrest and continued his agitation, condemning Iran's close cooperation with Israel and its capitulations, or extension of diplomatic immunity, to American government personnel in Iran.

The Birth of Iran's Proxy Network Strategy

After the revolution, Iran couldn't directly confront Israel militarily, so it developed something far more sophisticated and long-lasting: a network of proxy forces. Iran has established a network of allies and proxy forces across the Middle East, which it describes as part of an "axis of resistance" aimed at opposing US and Israeli interests in the area.

The strategy began taking shape during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon.

The leaders of the Lebanese Shia community appealed to Iran for help. Khomeini sent his defense minister and military leaders to Syria to assist, however he eventually concluded that Iran could not fight a two-front war given its ongoing war with Iraq.

Iran trained and armed Hezbollah during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and continued to back Shia militias throughout the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon. This marked the beginning of Iran's proxy strategy.

Even before 1979, Iranian Islamists had materially supported the Palestinians; after 1979 Iran attempted relations with the Palestine Liberation Organization, and later with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. What makes this network particularly effective is that these groups maintain their own political legitimacy while serving Iranian strategic interests.

The Secret Arms Deals During the Iran-Iraq War

Here's one of the most surprising twists in this story: even as Iran was becoming officially hostile to Israel, the two countries were secretly doing business together. Arms sales to Iran that totaled an estimated $500 million from 1981 to 1983 according to the Jafe Institute for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.

Most of it was paid for by Iranian oil delivered to Israel. "According to Ahmad Haidari, "an Iranian arms dealer working for the Khomeini government, roughly 80% of the weaponry bought by Tehran" immediately after the onset of the war originated in Israel.

The Observer estimated that Israel's arms sales to Iran during the Iran–Iraq War totaled US$500 million annually, and Time reported that throughout 1981 and 1982, "the Israelis reportedly set up Swiss bank accounts to handle the financial end of the deals". This secret cooperation continued even after diplomatic relations were severed.

The same year Israel provided active military support against Iraq by destroying the Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad, which the Iranians themselves had previously targeted, but the doctrine established by the attack would increase potential conflict in future years. These covert deals demonstrate how complex geopolitical relationships can be, with official hostility existing alongside practical cooperation when it serves mutual interests.

The Shift from Cold Peace to Open Hostility

The real deterioration in Iran-Israel relations didn't happen immediately after the 1979 revolution. The turn from cold peace to open hostility began in the early 1990s, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the defeat of Iraq in the Gulf War.

Iran and Israel had previously enjoyed warm ties due to common threats, but by the 1990s the USSR had dissolved and Iraq had been weakened. With their common enemies no longer posing the same threat, the ideological differences between the two countries became more pronounced.

Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's government adopted a more aggressive posture on Iran, and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made inflammatory statements against Israel. This period marked the beginning of what we now recognize as the modern Iran-Israel conflict.

Iran has been hostile to Israel since the 1979 revolution, and their consistent rhetoric has been that they believe that Israel is an illegitimate state and should be expelled from the region. The strategic calculation on both sides had fundamentally changed, setting the stage for decades of escalating tensions.

The Nuclear Factor Changes the Game

The conflict took on an entirely new dimension when Iran began developing its nuclear program in the 1990s and 2000s. The United States, Israel, and other Middle Eastern partners regard Iran as a primary threat to their interests in the region, and view its potential acquisition of nuclear weapons as a game-changing scenario to be steadfastly prevented—by force if necessary.

A first-order concern is that Iran's possession of nuclear weapons would pose a major, perhaps existential threat to Israel, its longtime foe. Israel has made it clear that it will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.

Because in the assessment of Israel's security chiefs, Iran's nuclear weapons program had advanced to the point of existential threat, from a regime avowedly seeking to bring about Israel's destruction. The bottom line is that Israel is expected to oppose any agreement with Iran, even one that would distance it from the option to produce a nuclear weapon.

Because in Jerusalem's view, the nuclear issue is only part of a set of problems, and the current window of time should be used to act to overthrow the Iranian regime. The nuclear issue has become the most dangerous aspect of the Iran-Israel conflict, with both sides viewing it as a zero-sum game where compromise seems impossible.

The Proxy Wars Across the Middle East

Since the 1990s, Iran and Israel have been fighting what experts call a proxy war across multiple countries. Israel and Iran have been fighting a shadow war through proxies and covert actions for decades.

Tehran has supported regional armed groups that have engaged in direct conflict with Israel, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen. Israel fought a war with Hezbollah in 2006.

Israel has fought several wars with Palestinians in and around the Gaza Strip: in 2008–2009, 2012, 2014, 2021 and 2023–2024. The scope of these proxy conflicts extends far beyond the Middle East.

Other factors contributing to the escalation of tensions include the Iranian nuclear program, Iran's funding of Islamist groups such as Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the Houthis, and Iran's involvement in attacks such as the 1992 Buenos Aires Israeli embassy bombing and the 1994 AMIA bombing, as well as Israeli threats of military action. With the U.S.

diplomatic and military position in the region weakened, an increasingly bold Iran expanded its influence into four Arab states — Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon — plus Gaza. This regional chess game has turned the entire Middle East into a battlefield of competing influences.

The Cyber War and Covert Operations

Beyond traditional warfare, Iran and Israel have pioneered a new form of conflict in the digital age. Iran and Israel have provided support for opposing factions in the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars and conducted cyberattacks and sabotage against each other's infrastructure, including attacks on nuclear facilities and oil tankers.

Iran has blamed Israel for a number of attacks over the years, including alleging that Israel and the U.S. were behind the Stuxnet malware attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in the 2000s, as well as alleging that Israel was behind the 2020 murder of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Israel has accused Iran of a number of cyberattacks and strikes on Israeli-owned oil tankers. These covert operations represent a form of conflict that's almost invisible to the public but incredibly damaging to both sides.

The assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists, the sabotage of nuclear facilities, and cyber attacks on critical infrastructure have become regular features of this shadow war. What makes this particularly dangerous is that these operations often occur in a legal gray area, making it difficult to predict when they might escalate into open warfare.

October 7th: The Catalyst for Direct Confrontation

The Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, marked a turning point in the Iran-Israel conflict. All that changed last October 7 when Hamas launched a surprise terrorist attack on Israel, killing more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign residents and taking hostage more than 200 others.

It was the deadliest attack in Israel's 75-year history. Hamas had crossed a red line.

On 7 October 2023, Hamas, a Palestinian militant group partially funded by Iran, launched an attack on Israel resulting in the deaths of almost 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and the outbreak of the Gaza war. Iran's response to the attack was immediate and unambiguous.

Iran, however, wasted no time in hailing the Hamas attack as a "victory." Hours after news of the attack broke on Oct. 7, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told Iran's ISNA news agency that "What took place today is in line with the continuation of victories of the anti-Zionist resistance in different fields, including Syria, Lebanon and occupied lands." Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip to dismantle Hamas after 7 October resulted in thousands of Palestinian casualties (the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza claims the number is more than 30,000, but that number is disputed, and at least a third were terrorists), and pushed Iran to re-evaluate its position on escalating conflict with Israel. Despite its years-long policy of avoiding direct confrontation with the US and Israel, the IRGC watched as Hamas – one of its strategic pawns (though not a direct proxy of Iran) – teetered on the brink of dismantlement.

A decision was made to abandon restraint and go on the offensive.

The Unprecedented Direct Military Confrontation

For the first time in their conflict, Iran and Israel began directly attacking each other's territory in 2024. I think we came closer to the possibility of a direct conflict between Israel and Iran over the course of the past two weeks than at any point in the past 45 years of hostility between the two countries.

Iran's attack last weekend was unprecedented. It was a very sophisticated and massive attack that was intended to overwhelm Israel's air defenses.

In April and October of 2024, Iran took the unprecedented step of attacking Israel directly, which prompted Israeli counterstrikes targeting Iranian air defenses and missile manufacturing facilities. The escalation began with an Israeli strike on Iran's consulate in Syria.

But that attack itself was a retaliation to Israel's suspected strike on Iran's consulate in Syria on April 1, which killed two top Iranian military commanders and at least 10 other people. In 2024, amid increasing regional tensions stemming from the Gaza war, Iran–Israel tensions