Isn't it peculiar that in the Middle East Israel and Iran aren't natural allies?

Mortar attacking and bombing each other every day isn’t very enlightened.

Well, neither country is within mortar range of the other.

@stanleybmanly Sorry… I made a mistake… all of the news is everyone in 1000 miles of the same area is full of muslims attacking Jews… I just think most of the area is full of lunatics in power. Iran keeps talking about nuking Israel the first chance it gets…I don’t know the specifics of who is attacking who. I have nothing more to add and much to learn.

Prior to the Iranian revolution (1979) Iran and Israel were very close. This was in the days of the Shah, when Iranians saw themselves as Persians first, not Moslems first.

There was military cooperation, cultural cooperation, and economic cooperation and commerce.

However, the Shah was overthrown in the late 1970s, the revolutionary government came into being under Ayatollah Khomeini, and the Iranian government turned Islamic and violently against Israel.

That was mostly Ahmadinejad who liked to talk shit towards Israel. He’s out of office now and never really had any real power to begin with (in Iran the president’s power is mostly with domestic and budgetary matters. He has little power in regards to their military or foreign policy, aside from serving a largely diplomatic role). The current president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, is much more rational.

Dr Hassan Rouhani got his doctorate from Glasgow Caledonian University

Well, they both start with the letter “I” in English. So yeah, why shouldn’t they get along? ;)