Trita Parsi: Tour de Force Analysis of Iranian-Israeli Relations from the Shah to the Present

Israel and Iran under the Shah were formerly allies through their adherence to the periphery doctrine along with the other most significant non-Arab state in the region, Turkey. Conventional wisdom dictates that the periphery doctrine was an attempt to curb and assuage the perceived threat of radical Arab nationalism by means of a strategic alliance of non-Arab states in the Middle East against Arab nationalist forces coming out of Egypt in the form of Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Baath Party in Syria and later Iraq.

Parsi even points to the continuity of something approximating to the periphery doctrine after the Islamic Revolution, whereby he details a number of attempts by Israel to push the US to sit down at the table with the Islamic Republic and broach the issue of a rapprochement. After the first Gulf War the Israeli approach was to change markedly as Iran's position as a formidable state or even hegemon in the region had been consolidated, and some ten years later with the removal of the Taliban from power and the ousting of Saddam Hussein by US forces, entrenched even further. In the aftermath of these developments Israel and Iran have since emerged as bitter rivals in their quest for regional dominance, which has arguably been inflamed and exacerbated by the unthinking and anti-Semitic comments made by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regarding both Israel and the Holocaust.

It seems there ain't enough room for two regional superpowers in this town! I know some of you aren't a fan of Trita Parsi, I absolutely adore him however, even if I don't agree with everything he says. Enjoy this tour de force run through of Iranian-Israeli relations from the time of the Shah to the present!