In all the excitement over the bombings of Tehran by Israel and Tel Aviv by Iran, the question has too seldom been asked: what exactly is Iran’s beef with Israel? Why does the Islamic Republic consider the Jewish state to be a mortal enemy, to the extent of repeatedly vowing its imminent destruction?
The answer is not immediately clear or obvious. After all, the two countries don’t border upon one another. They have no competing territorial claims. They have no competing economic interests. From the standpoint of the issues that have ordinarily caused conflicts among nations, Iran’s hostility to Israel makes about as much sense as if the leaders of the United States were suddenly to decide that the chief enemy of our nation was Costa Rica, and began to shower that small Central American nation with endless threats and saber-rattling.
The real reason, however, for the Islamic Republic’s hostility to Israel is quite clear, and is found in the official name of the nation itself. Iran is an Islamic republic. It is dedicated to the scrupulous implementation of Islamic law. The Qur’an, meanwhile, says that the Jews are among those who are “the most vehement of mankind in hostility to those who believe” (5:82). This has the effect, along with the tidal wave of antisemitic material that is elsewhere in the Qur’an, as well as in the traditions of Muhammad, of making Muslims vehement in hostility toward Jews.
That, in sum, is the basis of the Iranian government’s hostility to Israel, as Iranian officials themselves have made clear on numerous occasions. As they launched drones toward Israel last week, Iranian officers recited passages from the Qur’an.
On Oct. 1, 2024, as he prepared to launch 200 ballistic missiles against Israel, the late commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Hossein Salami, recited another passage from the Qur’an, saying: “In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. [The Quran says:] ‘Fight them, and Allah will punish them at your hands, put them to shame, help you overcome them, and soothe the hearts of the believers.’” That’s Qur’an 9:14-15, which tells Muslims that they are the executors of Allah’s wrath on earth, as Allah will punish unbelievers through the actions of the believers. The ballistic missiles that Salami was launching were, therefore, a manifestation of the divine punishment of the Jews.
This kind of thing goes back years. Back in August 2015, the Ayatollah Khamenei charged that both Israel and the United States were making war against Islam itself, conspiring “against the Qur’an and not Shiism and Iran, because they know that the Qur’an and Islam are the center of awakening nations.” And while Israel and the U.S. were supposedly conspiring against the Qur’an, the same book told the Muslims exactly what they should do in response: In October 2000, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said: “We should mobilize the whole Islamic World for a sharp confrontation with the Zionist regime. If we abide by the Qur’an, all of us should mobilize to kill.” Charming.
Related: Iran Has Been at War With the U.S. Since 1979
Ahmad Alamolhoda, a member of the Assembly of Experts, which chooses and supervises the Supreme Leader, said in 2013: “The destruction of Israel is the idea of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and is one of the pillars of the Iranian Islamic regime. We cannot claim that we have no intention of going to war with Israel.” Iran doesn’t just want to destroy Israel; it sees the destruction of Israel as one of its foremost goals as an Islamic republic. If Iran were not trying to destroy Israel, it would not be fulfilling its mission as an Islamic regime.
Salami summed it up back in March 2014. “Despite the geographical distance,” he said, “we are attached to the hearts of the Palestinians. How is it that our slogans and goals are identical to the slogans and causes of the Palestinians? Why do we strive to become martyrs and risk our lives for the Palestinian cause? The answer is that the religion of Islam has designated this for us — this goal, this motivation, this belief, this energy — so that we, here, can muster all our energies in order to annihilate the Zionist entity, more than 1,400 kilometers away. We are ready for that moment in the future.”
And here it is.
