EXPLAINER | Collateral Murder: The political disputes of the Iranian-Israeli

Amid the legal turmoil surrounding the Israel and Palestinian borders, a broader political war begins to resurface under cumulative powers and persistent measures. 

The nuclear strike, initiated by the Israeli government, on the Lebanese capital Beirut on September 23 has led to multiple deaths and casualties on numerous individuals, approximately accounting for more than 100 killings and 350 wounded over a span of three days, including the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) officer Abbas Nilforoushan and Hezbollah (an Iranian Islamic political party) chief Hassan Nasrallah, which has resulted in the resurfacing of countermeasures by Iran against Israel.   

“This horrible crime of the aggressor Zionist regime will not go unanswered,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said regarding the incident, promising an eventual case to regulate appropriate actions and international capacities in response to the strikes. 

Such a period of events, in wider contexts, is rooted in long-term diplomatic and political aggressions and conflicts between both countries, in which regulations and policies have yet to be fully amended in light of the historical and current margins leading to warfare, implicating the prevailing struggles and upheavals for power, hierarchy, and resources in the Middle East. 

Beneath the surfacing issues between Iran and Israel lies a distant past of close diplomacy and allyship that continued to flourish for consecutive decades. 

The ties and partnership of both countries reached their peak under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last and former monarch and ruler of the Iranian monarchy, in accordance with the gradual rise of Israeli power in the surrounding capitals and regions, particularly in Tehran, in which the production and trade of oil between Iran and Israel was settled. 

Plans for further interlinked dependency, however, were sealed in uncertainty in 1979, in which Pahlavi was not only scrutinized but dethroned by the Iranian peoples for his repressive rule and dictatorship and ignorance of nationalistic causes in favor of Western favor and unity. During the rule of the Shah, Pahlavi made certain governmental reformations in 1953-1975, after the abdication of former Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, which overthrew freedom of speech in the political, economical, and religious margins in hopes to align the country into American and British interests, especially in the oil trade. 

Stepping in after the dethroned ruler, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who served as the first supreme leader of Iran, ensured the re-evaluation of certain ties and legislation with Iranian allies, especially with Israel, whom he considered a threat to the rights of the liberation of the Iranians and Palestinians for its relations with the West and opposition to Islamic rule, and eventually dismissed any further official relations with. 

The succeeding activities involving both countries then became more implicative and confrontational, as shown in the proxy and shadow war following the aftermath of the 1979 revolution, where Iran made ties and contact with several anti-Israel parties such as the Shia Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Gaza Sunni Islamist political group Hamas, which influenced the decisive operations and assassinations of Iranian officials and personas, including the assumed involvement of the country in Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan and former Iranian Military Officer Qasem Soleimani’s deaths. 

Iran conducted its first direct military attack towards Israel on April 14 2024, after a series of suspicious activities, particularly air strikes, involving the latter in the bombardment of Tehran’s embassy in Damascus.

“While Tehran wants to avoid being sucked into a wider war, it may feel compelled to respond more forcefully to maintain the credibility of its regional deterrence posture,” European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) Director Julien-Barnes Dacey stated in regards to the increasing military attacks of Israel towards Iran and its neighboring states.  

This statement reflects the capital’s long standing position in withholding direct counterattacks against Israel to prevent further escalation of the broader political situation at hand. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a meeting with the national council leaders, warned the government to make cautious and strategic decisions amid Israel’s attacks. 

The emphasis of Zionist propaganda in the ever-growing combat is also prevalent. Zionism, which was formalized in 1897, is a Jewish movement advocating for the establishment of Jewish states in Israel, leading to the promotion of the Zionist ideological philosophy or propaganda focusing on Jewish authoritarian rule. 

“The Zionist regime will be punished by the hands of our brave men. We will make it regret this crime and others it has committed,” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in his symposium with the public, emphasizing the plans for a future retaliation with Israel as a way to neutralize its power and attacks in Tehran and Beirut. 

The Israeli government has yet to reveal its official role in the strikes and its claims to push back against the threats imposed by the Hezbollah and Hammas groups, which are currently situated in several Iranian and Palestinian regions. 

The expansion of Israel’s war strikes and regime could not only drastically change but also give way to the reopening and highlighting of cases of political breakdowns and complications from other regions with the said country. 

The multiple cases of seemingly planned attacks, through these cooperative relations and assumed assassinations of prominent persons, toward Iranian rule are incidents that are not only rooted in historical tension but are ways that could heighten the scarcity of aid and assistance for targeted groups and minorities. 

The US and Israel have remained allies and continue to form strong relations ever since 1948, in which Israel was officially recognized not only as a state but also a nation. 

In response to this controversy, the US government warned Iran to not take direct military measures towards its appointed embassies in the country and Israel as a counteraction to the strike. “It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability,” US President Joe Biden expressed in one of his interviews with a reporter on September 28 about his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the near future.

Nonetheless, their bonds have serious implications for the Iranian-Israeli and other Arab-Israeli friction and disputes. 

The crisis, if left tolerated, can invoke international pressure and de-escalation and significantly affect the state of several countries near the Iranian region, such as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, which either have maintained pacts and allyships with Iran through political militants and bodies like the Hezbollah and Hamas or have been pushed in involvement in the race for regional claims against Iran’s bigger military forces (the Saudi-Iranian rivalry for the Persian Gulf) and diplomatic relations with Israel in accordance with the Abraham Accords, a peace treaty for several Arab countries in 2020 including Saudi Arabia, potentially leading to direct confrontations with the Israeli powers, inferred by scholarly analysis and perspectives regarding the Iranian-Israeli war. 

These roles and factors, in consideration of the conflict that highlights the shifting relations of Iran and Israel, raise further concerns and allegations of authority and warfare in the Middle East. The contrasting goals and measures that both countries have enacted and will carry out can also point to a possible all-out war and escapade. Leaving none fully prepared and unscarred.