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From prior to its establishment, under one regime, and then from ‘48 - ‘78 across two fundamentally opposed regimes, with one several year fragmentation due to an attempt by Mossadegh to win support for nationalization of oil, Iran recognized & supported Israel.
The Tudeh party of Iran (communist party), was even more pro Israel & saw them as an anti imperialist partner fighting back reactionary powers in the region, the first to expel the British, and a model for socialism.
What shifted?
1. Most obviously the accrued hostilities in the region & pressure on Iran from surrounding powers
2. The role of the US, and Israel’s role as ally of The US, who decides Israel’s policies, leaving bitter tastes in Iranian’s mouths
1. Most obviously the accrued hostilities in the region & pressure on Iran from surrounding powers
2. The role of the US, and Israel’s role as ally of The US, who decides Israel’s policies, leaving bitter tastes in Iranian’s mouths
3. The shift of the left globally in the long arc from 45-73, which is part of the factors that shifted Tudeh
4. The rise of Islamism in Iran
5. The rise of the right in Israel & US
6. The 1967 war (an event central to 1-3)
7. Obviously the Islamic Revolution of ‘78
4. The rise of Islamism in Iran
5. The rise of the right in Israel & US
6. The 1967 war (an event central to 1-3)
7. Obviously the Islamic Revolution of ‘78
But note, this position was not actually that rare in the Middle East. Israel maintained friendly relations with Lebanon until ‘80-82, and the rise of Hezbollah, after the Israeli invasion & establishment of a Maronite government.
As the second chapter in Joel Beinin’s ‘Was the Red Flag Flying There?’, proclamations by the Communist parties of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine & elsewhere, made proclamations & Such to the same effect as Tudeh, after ‘48, and into the ‘50s.
Other books on the left and this set of issues, from Shindler, Traverso, Linfield, Budeiri, and others—all incredibly partisan & thus either focus on opposite emphases—discuss similar transitions surrounding the left & regional powers
Here the obvious shift was the rise of Nasser & Baathism, the UK switched from supporting post War Arab nationalists to opposing them, the US & Israel grew close, alienating the USSR & causing realignment, Which trickled down to local communist parties.
The sanguinity of local powers, and of the left, to Israel, since its founding, is one thing historians from every ideology—Massad, Khalidi, Said Shlaim, Morris, Pappe—have emphasized in various aspects to bust myths widely held by both opponents & supporters
Anyway, the point is that the actual history is far more interesting & complicated than what people assume.
And despite their opposition to each other—Israel, the right, the US, the Anglo settler left, & the regional powers surrounding Israel—all benefit from the narrative erasing the latter two’s cooperation with the first or its replacement by the 2nd & third from 45-85
