Iranian-Israeli relations : covert relations to open hostility

Abedin, Roshni Elizabeth.

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Abedin, Roshni Elizabeth.

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Thesis (M.A.L.S.)--Georgetown University, 2010.; Includes bibliographical references.; Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. Iranian-Israeli are often portrayed as being solely based on conflict. However, since the creation of the Jewish state, the relations between the countries have included various different stages, including covert relations. The fact is, for nearly thirty years, from 1948 until 1978, Iran and Israel cooperated in certain areas such as trade and intelligence. Some level of covert relations continued even after the creation of the Islamic Republic in 1979, despite the new regime and its founder Ayatollah Khomeini's anti-Israeli views. However, by the mid-1980s, relations had seriously deteriorated.; This paper explores why the cooperation ended after the mid-1980s after the Islamic Republic had already been in place for a number of years and will attempt to answer this question regarding the motivations on both sides. The history of Iranian-Israeli relations from 1948 and the domestic, regional, and international changes that occurred between both countries will be examined.; The first era, from 1948 until 1978, the Shah and the new Israeli government, who both had a pro-Western orientation, came together under the Periphery Doctrine against the threats from their Arab neighbors and the Soviet Union. After the Revolution, the Islamic Republic used anti-Israeli rhetoric as a way to show its pro-Islamic, anti-imperialist credentials and spread its ideology among the Arabs populations. However, the continued threat from the Soviet Union, the Iran-Iraq War, and the regional isolation of the new Iranian regime led it to buy weapons from the Israelis. On the Israeli side, during the 1980s there was still hope that the Islamic Republic regime would not last and that the countries could return to their previous agreements. In addition, Israel did not want Iraq to gain additional regional power by winning the Iran-Iraq War. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the alliance with Egypt in the Camp David Accords, and the weakening of Iraq in the first Gulf War, the Israeli's reasons to continue working with Iran lessened. In the absence of these other regional threats, Iran became the larger threat, and Israel moved towards the Arabs. The relations since then have been one of hostility as both countries attempt to gain regional power.; This paper will show that despite vocal ideological opposition to Israel, the Iranian foreign policy is not driven by ideology alone, but rather by a combination of ideology and regional and international factors. On the Israeli side, a number of regional changes caused Israel to move towards the Arabs and away from the Iranians in the late 1980s. In their desire to maintain their power in the region, Israel decided to make Iran the common enemy between itself, the United States, and the Arabs.