TEDGlobal 2013
Trita Parsi: Iran and Israel: Peace is possible
Filmed:
Readability: 5.9
796,662 views
Iran and Israel: two nations with tense relations that seem existentially at odds. But for all their antagonistic rhetoric, there is a recent hidden history of collaboration, even friendship. In an informative talk, Trita Parsi shows how an unlikely strategic alliance in the past could mean peace in the future for these two feuding countries.
Trita Parsi - Political scientist
Trita Parsi delves into Middle Eastern history and politics, uncovering fresh perspectives on Iranian, Israeli, and U.S. relations -- and discovers potential solutions to brewing conflicts. Full bio
Trita Parsi delves into Middle Eastern history and politics, uncovering fresh perspectives on Iranian, Israeli, and U.S. relations -- and discovers potential solutions to brewing conflicts. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
"Iran is Israel's best friend,
0
332
2070
00:14
and we do not intend to change our position
1
2402
2709
00:17
in relation to Tehran."
2
5111
3480
00:20
Believe it or not, this is a quote
3
8591
1723
00:22
from an Israeli prime minister,
4
10314
2199
00:24
but it's not Ben-Gurion or Golda Meir
5
12513
2444
00:26
from the era of the Shah.
6
14957
2193
00:29
It's actually from Yitzhak Rabin.
7
17150
2418
00:31
The year is 1987.
8
19568
2486
00:34
Ayatollah Khomeini is still alive,
9
22054
1921
00:35
and much like Ahmadinejad today,
10
23975
1938
00:37
he's using the worst rhetoric against Israel.
11
25913
2900
00:40
Yet, Rabin referred to Iran
12
28813
2879
00:43
as a geostrategic friend.
13
31692
3250
00:46
Today, when we hear the threats of war
14
34942
2696
00:49
and the high rhetoric,
15
37638
1406
00:51
we're oftentimes led to believe
16
39044
1631
00:52
that this is yet another one of those unsolvable
17
40675
3283
00:55
Middle Eastern conflicts
18
43958
1875
00:57
with roots as old as the region itself.
19
45833
3728
01:01
Nothing could be further from the truth,
20
49561
3889
01:05
and I hope today to show you why that is.
21
53450
4032
01:09
The relations between the Iranian and the Jewish people
22
57482
2338
01:11
throughout history has actually been quite positive,
23
59820
2480
01:14
starting in 539 B.C.,
24
62300
2400
01:16
when King Cyrus the Great of Persia
25
64700
1889
01:18
liberated the Jewish people from their Babylonian captivity.
26
66589
3694
01:22
A third of the Jewish population
27
70283
2471
01:24
stayed in Babylonia.
28
72754
1566
01:26
They're today's Iraqi Jews.
29
74320
2250
01:28
A third migrated to Persia.
30
76570
3106
01:31
They're today's Iranian Jews,
31
79676
2076
01:33
still 25,000 of them living in Iran,
32
81752
3031
01:36
making them the largest Jewish community
33
84783
1912
01:38
in the Middle East outside of Israel itself.
34
86695
3248
01:41
And a third returned to historic Palestine,
35
89943
2631
01:44
did the second rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem,
36
92574
3051
01:47
financed, incidentally, by Persian tax money.
37
95625
5149
01:52
But even in modern times,
38
100774
2086
01:54
relations have been close at times.
39
102860
2445
01:57
Rabin's statement was a reflection
40
105305
2801
02:00
of decades of security and intelligence collaboration
41
108106
3958
02:04
between the two, which in turn
42
112064
2536
02:06
was born out of perception of common threats.
43
114600
3997
02:10
Both states feared the Soviet Union
44
118597
2815
02:13
and strong Arab states such as Egypt and Iraq.
45
121412
5147
02:18
And, in addition, the Israeli doctrine of the periphery,
46
126559
4241
02:22
the idea that Israel's security was best achieved
47
130800
3292
02:26
by creating alliances with the non-Arab states
48
134092
4078
02:30
in the periphery of the region
49
138170
1906
02:32
in order to balance the Arab states in its vicinity.
50
140076
4889
02:36
Now, from the Shah's perspective, though,
51
144965
2468
02:39
he wanted to keep this as secret as possible,
52
147433
3654
02:43
so when Yitzhak Rabin, for instance,
53
151087
2248
02:45
traveled to Iran in the '70s,
54
153335
1892
02:47
he usually wore a wig
55
155227
1448
02:48
so that no one would recognize him.
56
156675
2411
02:51
The Iranians built a special tarmac
57
159086
2435
02:53
at the airport in Tehran, far away from the central terminal,
58
161521
3252
02:56
so that no one would notice the large number
59
164773
2305
02:59
of Israeli planes shuttling between Tel Aviv and Tehran.
60
167078
5421
03:04
Now, did all of this end with the Islamic revolution
61
172499
3187
03:07
in 1979?
62
175686
2953
03:10
In spite of the very clear anti-Israeli ideology
63
178639
3067
03:13
of the new regime, the geopolitical logic
64
181706
3393
03:17
for their collaboration lived on,
65
185099
2604
03:19
because they still had common threats.
66
187703
2812
03:22
And when Iraq invaded Iran in 1980,
67
190515
3029
03:25
Israel feared an Iraqi victory
68
193544
2490
03:28
and actively helped Iran by selling it arms
69
196034
2751
03:30
and providing it with spare parts
70
198785
2252
03:33
for Iran's American weaponry
71
201037
2160
03:35
at a moment when Iran was very vulnerable
72
203197
3716
03:38
because of an American arms embargo
73
206913
2502
03:41
that Israel was more than happy to violate.
74
209415
2988
03:44
In fact, back in the 1980s,
75
212403
2758
03:47
it was Israel that lobbied Washington
76
215161
2809
03:49
to talk to Iran, to sell arms to Iran,
77
217970
4109
03:54
and not pay attention to Iran's anti-Israeli ideology.
78
222079
5624
03:59
And this, of course, climaxed
79
227703
1939
04:01
in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s.
80
229642
4651
04:06
But with the end of the Cold War
81
234293
2000
04:08
came also the end of the Israeli-Iranian cold peace.
82
236293
4438
04:12
Suddenly, the two common threats
83
240731
2360
04:15
that had pushed them closer together throughout decades,
84
243091
3053
04:18
more or less evaporated.
85
246144
2446
04:20
The Soviet Union collapsed,
86
248590
1962
04:22
Iraq was defeated,
87
250552
1692
04:24
and a new environment was created in the region
88
252244
2081
04:26
in which both of them felt more secure,
89
254325
2340
04:28
but they were also now left unchecked.
90
256665
2920
04:31
Without Iraq balancing Iran,
91
259585
3115
04:34
Iran could now become a threat,
92
262700
2178
04:36
some in Israel argued.
93
264878
2532
04:39
In fact, the current dynamic
94
267410
2945
04:42
that you see between Iran and Israel
95
270355
2092
04:44
has its roots more so
96
272447
2095
04:46
in the geopolitical reconfiguration of the region
97
274542
2653
04:49
after the Cold War
98
277195
1789
04:50
than in the events of 1979,
99
278984
2500
04:53
because at this point, Iran and Israel
100
281484
2697
04:56
emerge as two of the most powerful states in the region,
101
284181
3888
05:00
and rather than viewing each other
102
288069
1243
05:01
as potential security partners,
103
289312
2476
05:03
they increasingly came to view each other
104
291788
2212
05:06
as rivals and competitors.
105
294000
3558
05:09
So Israel, who in the 1980s
106
297558
1801
05:11
lobbied for and improved U.S.-Iran relations
107
299359
3525
05:14
now feared a U.S.-Iran rapprochement,
108
302884
3383
05:18
thinking that it would come
109
306267
1294
05:19
at Israel's security interests' expense,
110
307561
3662
05:23
and instead sought to put Iran
111
311223
2132
05:25
in increased isolation.
112
313355
2534
05:27
Ironically, this was happening at a time
113
315889
2928
05:30
when Iran was more interested
114
318817
2067
05:32
in peacemaking with Washington
115
320884
2150
05:35
than to see to Israel's destruction.
116
323034
3435
05:38
Iran had put itself in isolation
117
326469
1840
05:40
because of its radicalism,
118
328309
1867
05:42
and after having helped the United States indirectly
119
330176
2919
05:45
in the war against Iraq in 1991,
120
333095
2272
05:47
the Iranians were hoping
121
335367
1956
05:49
that they would be rewarded by being included
122
337323
3902
05:53
in the post-war security architecture of the region.
123
341225
4730
05:57
But Washington chose to ignore Iran's outreach,
124
345955
3552
06:01
as it would a decade later in Afghanistan,
125
349507
2436
06:03
and instead moved to intensify Iran's isolation,
126
351943
4195
06:08
and it is at this point, around 1993, '94,
127
356138
3234
06:11
that Iran begins to translate
128
359372
2712
06:14
its anti-Israeli ideology
129
362084
2227
06:16
into operational policy.
130
364311
2395
06:18
The Iranians believed that whatever they did,
131
366706
2279
06:20
even if they moderated their policies,
132
368985
2310
06:23
the U.S. would continue to seek Iran's isolation,
133
371295
3302
06:26
and the only way Iran could compel Washington
134
374597
3654
06:30
to change its position was by imposing a cost
135
378251
3296
06:33
on the U.S. if it didn't.
136
381547
3313
06:36
The easiest target was the peace process,
137
384860
4090
06:40
and now the Iranian ideological bark
138
388950
2377
06:43
was to be accompanied by a nonconventional bite,
139
391327
4239
06:47
and Iran began supporting extensively
140
395566
3977
06:51
Palestinian Islamist groups that it previously
141
399543
2699
06:54
had shunned.
142
402242
3391
06:57
In some ways, this sounds paradoxical,
143
405633
3215
07:00
but according to Martin Indyk
144
408848
2120
07:02
of the Clinton administration,
145
410968
1873
07:04
the Iranians had not gotten it entirely wrong,
146
412841
2899
07:07
because the more peace there would be
147
415740
1541
07:09
between Israel and Palestine,
148
417281
2163
07:11
the U.S. believed, the more Iran would get isolated.
149
419444
3363
07:14
The more Iran got isolated, the more peace there would be.
150
422807
3136
07:17
So according to Indyk, and these are his words,
151
425943
2448
07:20
the Iranians had an interest to do us in
152
428391
3188
07:23
on the peace process
153
431579
1667
07:25
in order to defeat our policy of containment.
154
433246
3712
07:28
To defeat our policy of containment,
155
436958
2366
07:31
not about ideology.
156
439324
3986
07:35
But throughout even the worst times of their entanglement,
157
443310
3705
07:39
all sides have reached out to each other.
158
447015
3263
07:42
Netanyahu, when he got elected in 1996,
159
450278
3269
07:45
reached out to the Iranians to see
160
453547
1796
07:47
if there were any ways that
161
455343
1703
07:49
the doctrine of the periphery could be resurrected.
162
457046
3189
07:52
Tehran was not interested.
163
460235
2470
07:54
A few years later, the Iranians sent
164
462705
2965
07:57
a comprehensive negotiation proposal to the Bush administration,
165
465670
3459
08:01
a proposal that revealed that there was some potential
166
469129
4008
08:05
of getting Iran and Israel back on terms again.
167
473137
3863
08:09
The Bush administration did not even respond.
168
477000
3260
08:12
All sides have never missed an opportunity
169
480260
2820
08:15
to miss an opportunity.
170
483080
3067
08:20
But this is not an ancient conflict.
171
488897
4672
08:25
This is not even an ideological conflict.
172
493569
2959
08:28
The ebbs and flows of hostility
173
496528
2794
08:31
have not shifted with ideological zeal,
174
499322
3276
08:34
but rather with changes in the geopolitical landscape.
175
502598
2602
08:37
When Iran and Israel's security imperatives
176
505200
2331
08:39
dictated collaboration, they did so
177
507531
2702
08:42
in spite of lethal ideological opposition to each other.
178
510233
3576
08:45
When Iran's ideological impulses collided
179
513809
2916
08:48
with its strategic interests,
180
516725
2230
08:50
the strategic interests always prevailed.
181
518955
3663
08:54
This is good news, because it means
182
522618
2993
08:57
that neither war nor enmity
183
525611
2586
09:00
is a foregone conclusion.
184
528197
3670
09:03
But some want war.
185
531867
2555
09:06
Some believe or say that it's 1938,
186
534422
3204
09:09
Iran is Germany,
187
537626
1912
09:11
and Ahmadinejad is Hitler.
188
539538
3166
09:14
If we accept this to be true,
189
542704
1865
09:16
that indeed it is 1938, Iran is Germany,
190
544569
3352
09:19
Ahmadinejad is Hitler,
191
547921
2407
09:22
then the question we have to ask ourself is,
192
550328
2835
09:25
who wishes to play the role of Neville Chamberlain?
193
553163
3813
09:28
Who will risk peace?
194
556976
2866
09:31
This is an analogy that is deliberately aimed
195
559842
2614
09:34
at eliminating diplomacy,
196
562456
2760
09:37
and when you eliminate diplomacy,
197
565216
2412
09:39
you make war inevitable.
198
567628
3089
09:42
In an ideological conflict, there can be no truce,
199
570717
3115
09:45
no draw, no compromise,
200
573832
2165
09:47
only victory or defeat.
201
575997
3282
09:51
But rather than making war inevitable
202
579279
3190
09:54
by viewing this as ideological,
203
582469
3204
09:57
we would be wise to seek ways
204
585673
2039
09:59
to make peace possible.
205
587712
2988
10:02
Iran and Israel's conflict is a new phenomenon,
206
590700
3496
10:06
only a few decades old
207
594196
1990
10:08
in a history of 2,500 years,
208
596186
2626
10:10
and precisely because its roots are geopolitical,
209
598812
3987
10:14
it means that solutions can be found,
210
602799
2840
10:17
compromises can be struck,
211
605639
2687
10:20
however difficult it yet may be.
212
608326
2819
10:23
After all, it was Yitzhak Rabin himself who said,
213
611145
3992
10:27
"You don't make peace with your friends.
214
615137
2986
10:30
You make it with your enemies."
215
618123
2380
10:32
Thank you.
216
620503
1435
10:33
(Applause)
217
621938
5082
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Trita Parsi - Political scientistTrita Parsi delves into Middle Eastern history and politics, uncovering fresh perspectives on Iranian, Israeli, and U.S. relations -- and discovers potential solutions to brewing conflicts.
Why you should listen
Writer and political scientist Trita Parsi is an expert observer of the labyrinthine relationships between the U.S. and the Middle East, cutting through conventional stereotypes to laying bare the often-contentious history of the region.
When Parsi was only 4, his family fled to Sweden from Iran to escape political repression. Parsi later relocated to the U.S., where he earned a PhD and founded the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a grassroots organization promoting the interests of the U.S./ Iranian community.
Trita Parsi | Speaker | TED.com