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Historically, the Persians and Jewish people have gotten along well enough, considering their radical differences in religious ideologies (Islam versus Judaism). For example, Cyrus the Great once freed Jewish people in the 6th century BCE. Those same Jews that he freed now reside in the regions of Iran, Iraq, and Palestine. A common misconception is that Israel (a relatively new nation founded in 1948) and Iran have always been at odds, at least in the 20th century with so many destructive wars occurring. However, the two nations were driven to peaceful relations because of a common fear of USSR and Iraq dominion. Even after the Iranian revolution in 1979 (where a strict Muslim government was installed), airplanes still flew between Tehran (capital of Iran) and Tel Aviv (second most populated city in Israel). However, after the Cold War ended, the Soviet Union collapsed, and Iraq was defeated in the First Persian Gulf War (1980-1988), tensions between the two nations escalated—there was no common threat to distract them, so ideological differences prevailed. The United States intervened in Middle Eastern conflicts around this time and adopted a policy of isolationism towards Iran, which in turn supported the Palestinian Muslim groups to “defeat the U.S. policy of containment.” Iran was starting to interfere in foreign affairs, and the U.S. wanted to prevent that.
After watching this video, I was left with several impressions. First, the analogy at the end was interesting and pertained to what I have learned in history class. Ahmadinejad, the sixth President of Iran, was likened to Hitler, and he was the ruler of “Germany” (Iran). To quell tensions in the Middle East, the narrator called for a Neville Chamberlain, alluding to the English Prime Minister during WWI who tried to “appease” and compromise with Hitler. The narrator suggested that compromise between Israel and Iran is possible; it has been done before, and is imperative to maintain long-term peace in the conflict-ridden Middle East. I was surprised just how large Iran was by looking at a map—it is much bigger than Iraq and certainly Israel. It is unique that Israel and Iran have maintained contact because such a large tract of land separates them. Although I am not an expert in Middle Eastern affairs, I think that conflict and mutual enemies is the only way Israel and Iran will ever be “peaceful”, or at least not outright fighting each other. However, in the absence of a common threat and with so different religious ideologies, tensions are likely to persist. Just as a side note, one main difference and possible point of contention between the two countries is that Iran has large reserves of oil, while Israel have practically none. This difference could possibly fuel quarrels in 21st century because of the oil crisis that is predicted to occur in the next 100 years.
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Cyrus the Great http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great |
**My information and opinions come from the Tedtalk video
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