Manual Israel vs. America vs. the World

Israel–United States relations

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In comparing the American army to the Israeli army, I noticed a couple of differences. One visible contrast is the way that each country celebrates their memorial day for fallen soldiers. Israel is a country in which nearly every single person has fought in the army.

Everybody knows somebody who has fallen in the military, whether it is, God forbid, a friend or even a family member. During the memorial day in Israel, there is a minute of silence. People take this time to reflect and grieve. They ascend Mount Herzl to mourn the sadness and misery and desolation that has fallen over the nation. Israelis spend much of the day in extreme pain over the slain heroes. In America, however, where most people have not fought or served in the army, the atmosphere is entirely different. Americans celebrate a grand Memorial Day.

This is a day filled with long outdoor activities, barbecues, and huge sales in retail stores. People look forward to Memorial Day because they get together with their family and friends. They have a long weekend off from work. In Israel, this is not even considered a holiday; this is a day where one reflects deeply upon those who have been lost and those who will, sadly, fall in the future.

Another major contrast that I observed are the battle tactics of both armies. America is known to be a strong and impactful country.

Their military is considered superior, and they have been known to win numerous wars. For this, many Americans pride themselves and say that America is truly the greatest country. Yet, America uses the immense military force to threaten other countries into submission. This is a fundamental variance from Israel. Israel never fights a war unless they have to. Israel is always acting in self-defense. They never use their force to threaten, and they are never the ones to start a war. This could be because they live in a constant state of arm-twisting duress. All men and women Israel are drafted to the army at the young age of Iran along with India and Yugoslavia opposed the plan, predicting it would lead to an escalation of violence.

Maintaining that peace could only be established through a single federal state, Iran voted against the partition plan when it was adopted by the UN General Assembly. The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, predicted that the partition would lead to generations of fighting. From the establishment of the State of Israel in until the Iranian Revolution and the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty in , Israel and Iran maintained close ties.

Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel [13] as a sovereign state after Turkey. Israel had a permanent delegation in Tehran which served as a de facto embassy , before Ambassadors were exchanged in the late s. Considerable debts owed to Iran by Israel for business conducted before the Iranian revolution, in the order of a billion dollars, were not paid to Iran. During Ayatollah Khomeini 's campaign to overthrow Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , Israel, which had relatively warm relations with the Shah, became an issue. In the immediate aftermath of the Iranian Revolution which witnessed the establishment of the Islamic Republic , Iran cut off all official relations; official statements, state institutes, events and sanctioned initiatives adopted a sharp anti-Zionist stance.

Following the break-off of diplomatic relations on 18 February, [28] the Israeli Embassy in Tehran was closed and handed over to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. According to Trita Parsi , author of Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran and the United States , Yale University Press, , Iran's strategic imperatives compelled the Khomeini government to maintain clandestine ties to Israel, while hope that the periphery doctrine could be resurrected motivated the Jewish State's assistance to Iran.

However, at the same time, Iran provided support for Islamist-Shia Lebanese parties, helping to consolidate them into a single political and military organization, Hezbollah , and providing them the ideological indoctrination, military training and equipment to attack Israeli and American targets. The same year Israel provided active military support against Iraq by destroying the Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad , which the Iranians themselves had previously targeted , but the doctrine established by the attack would increase potential conflict in future years.

Most of it was paid for by Iranian oil delivered to Israel. According to Mark Phythian, the fact "that the Iranian air force could function at all" after Iraq's initial attack and "was able to undertake a number of sorties over Baghdad and strike at strategic installations" was "at least partly due to the decision of the Reagan administration to allow Israel to channel arms of US origin to Iran to prevent an easy and early Iraqi victory. Despite all the speeches of Iranian leaders and the denunciation of Israel at Friday prayers , there were never less than around one hundred Israeli advisers and technicians in Iran at any time throughout the war, living in a carefully guarded and secluded camp just north of Tehran, where they remained even after the ceasefire.

Israel's support was "crucial" to keeping Iran's air force flying against Iraq. Israeli sales also included spare parts for U. Newsweek also reported that after an Iranian defector landed his F-4 Phantom jet in Saudi Arabia in , intelligence experts determined that many of its parts had originally been sold to Israel, and had then been re-exported to Tehran in violation of U. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in December called Israel a "cancerous tumour" that should be removed from the region.

On 15 August , during a meeting with veterans of the Iran—Iraq War , Ayatollah Khamenei said that he was confident that "the fake Zionist regime will disappear from the landscape of geography. Under reformist Iranian President Mohammad Khatami , elected in , some believed Iran—Israel relations would improve. Khatami called Israel an "illegal state" and a "parasite," [45] but also said in Jews would be "safe in Iran" and all religious minorities would be protected.

However, Khatami denied this. With the election of Mahmud Ahmedinijiad, a hardliner of the Iranian politics, the relations of the countries became increasingly strained as the countries became to be engaged in a series of proxy conflicts and covert operations against each other. During the Lebanon War , Iranian Revolutionary Guards were believed to have directly assisted Hezbollah fighters in their attacks on Israel.

Multiple sources suggested that hundreds of Revolutionary Guard operatives participated in the firing of rockets into Israel during the war, and secured Hezbollah's long-range missiles. Revolutionary Guard operatives were allegedly seen operating openly at Hezbollah outposts during the war. The attack severely damaged the warship and killed four crewmen. It is alleged that between six and nine Revolutionary Guard operatives were killed by the Israeli military during the war.

According to the Israeli media their bodies were transferred to Syria and from there, flown to Tehran. During and immediately after the Gaza War , the Israeli Air Force , with the assistance of Israeli commandos, was reported to have carried out three airstrikes against Iranian arms being smuggled to Hamas through Sudan , as Iran launched an intensive effort to supply Hamas with weapons and ammunition. Israel hinted that it was behind the attacks. Two truck convoys were destroyed, and an arms-laden ship was sunk in the Red Sea. In , a wave of assassinations targeting Iranian nuclear scientists began.

The assassinations were widely believed to be the work of Mossad , Israel's foreign intelligence service. According to Iran and global media sources, the methods used to kill the scientists is reminiscent of the way Mossad had previously assassinated targets. The assassinations were alleged to be an attempt to stop Iran's nuclear program, or to ensure that it cannot recover following a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. On 12 October , an explosion occurred at an IRGC military base near the city of Khorramabad , killing 18 soldiers.

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Shahriari was killed, while Abbasi was severely wounded. On 23 July , Darioush Rezaeinejad was shot dead in eastern Tehran. On 11 January , Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan and his driver were killed by a bomb attached to their car from a motorcycle. In June Stuxnet , an advanced computer worm was discovered. It is believed that it had been developed by US and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.

Iran denied that any explosion had occurred, but The Times reported damage to the nuclear plant based on satellite images, and quoted Israeli intelligence sources as saying that the blast indeed targeted a nuclear site, and was "no accident". The Israel Defense Forces reacted by firing four artillery shells at the area from where the launch originated.

It was speculated that the attack was ordered by Iran and Syria as a warning to Israel. Another 12 people were injured, of whom 7 later died in hospital. The blast killed 17 Revolutionary Guard operatives, including General Hassan Moqaddam , described as a key figure in Iran's missile program. In response to Israeli covert operations, Iranian agents reportedly began trying to hit Israeli and Jewish targets; potential targets were then placed on high alert.

Yoram Cohen , the head of Shin Bet , claimed that three planned attacks in Turkey , Azerbaijan and Thailand were thwarted at the last minute. In Georgia, a car bomb failed to explode near the embassy and was safely detonated by Georgian police. In India, the car bomb exploded, injuring four people. Amongst the wounded was the wife of an Israeli Defense Ministry employee. The cell was uncovered when one of their bombs exploded.

Police responded, and the Iranian agent present at the house threw an explosive device at officers that tore his legs off, and was subsequently taken into custody. A second suspect was arrested as he tried to catch a flight out of the country, and the third escaped to Malaysia , where he was arrested by Malaysian Federal Police. It is said Kazmi was an Indian citizen who worked for an Iranian publication. In late February , WikiLeaks published confidential emails from Stratfor , a US-based private intelligence company, which were stolen by the hacking group Anonymous.

Among the information released was a claim that Israeli commandos, in collaboration with Kurdish fighters, destroyed several underground Iranian facilities used for nuclear and defense research projects. On 18 July , a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria was destroyed in a bombing attack that killed five Israeli tourists and the driver, and injured 32 people.

Iran–Israel relations

Iranian officials suspected Mossad or CIA were responsible. On 30 January , Israeli aircraft allegedly struck a Syrian convoy transporting Iranian weapons to Hezbollah. Both targeted long-ranged weapons sent from Iran to Hezbollah. It targeted Russian-made Yakhont anti-ship missiles near the city of Latakia, and killed several Syrian troops. On 7 May , residents of Tehran reported hearing three blasts in an area where Iran maintains its missile research and depots. Later, an Iranian website said the blasts occurred at a privately owned chemical factory.

Several incidents have taken place on the Israeli—Syrian ceasefire line during the Syrian Civil War , straining the Iran-Israel relations. The incidents are considered a spillover of the Quneitra Governorate clashes since and later incidents between Iran-supported Syrian Arab Army and the rebels, ongoing on the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan and the Golan Neutral Zone and the Hezbollah.

Since the onset of the Syrian War, the Israeli military is reportedly preparing itself for potential threats should there be a power vacuum in Syria. A court in Jerusalem has sentenced an Israeli man, Yitzhak Bergel to four-and-a-half years in prison for offering to spy for Iran. Bergel belongs to the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta , an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect which is vehemently opposed to the State of Israel's existence. On 5 March , the Israeli navy intercepted the Klos-C cargo ship. Israel stated Iran was using the vessel to smuggle dozens of long-range rockets to Gaza, including Syrian-manufactured M rockets.

The operation, named Full Disclosure and carried out by Shayetet 13 special forces, took place in the Red Sea, 1, kilometers away from Israel and some kilometers from Port Sudan. On 6 May , it was reported that a blast shook the Iranian city of Qazvin. Los Angeles Times reported that the city might be home to a secret nuclear facility.

Israeli military did not comment on the reports. Two workers were killed in an explosion that took place at a military explosives factory southeast of Tehran, near the suspected nuclear reactor in Parchin. Israel responded with artillery fire toward two Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon.

On 8 December , during a summit of Muslim nations in Islam's holy city of Mecca , Ahmadinejad told Iran's Arabic channel Al-Alam a complicated story on the Holocaust and the establishment of Israel. Since then, the Iranian president has made statements pertaining to these topics.

If Israel is a synonym and will give the indication of Zionism mentality, no. But if you are going to conclude that we have said the people there have to be removed or we [said] they have to be massacred or so, this is fabricated, unfortunate selective approach to what the mentality and policy of Islamic Republic of Iran is. We view the American nation as one with the greatest nations of the world. Hard-liners close to the government harshly attacked Mashaei's remarks. President Ahmadinejad, however, defended Mashaei and spoke in his favor.

At a news conference, he said, "The Iranian nation never recognized Israel and will never ever recognize it. But we feel pity for those who have been deceived or smuggled into Israel to be oppressed citizens in Israel. During a Friday sermon in Tehran, he stated, "It is incorrect, irrational, pointless and nonsensical to say that we are friends with the Israeli people This is the position of our regime, our revolution and our people. In August , a senior cleric and Tehran's provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, speaking about Qods Day , called for the annihilation of the "Zionist regime," emphasizing that the spread of the "Islamic Awakening" in the Middle East "heralds annihilation of the Zionist regime.

In August , Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, who heads Iran's Passive Defense Organization, said ahead of Al-Quds Day that Israel must be destroyed, saying, "[Al-Quds Day] is a reflection of the fact that no other way exists apart from resolve and strength to completely eliminate the aggressive nature and to destroy Israel.

In response to these remarks, an Israeli government official said that these remarks were a "reaffirmation of what we continually hear from the Iranian leadership" and that Israel was taking the Iranian threat seriously. The official said that the continual announcement of these remarks show how Iran's leaders believes in them, and that Iran's leadership must end these comments to reduce international pressure. On 22 September , General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards , said that eventually a war with Israel would soon break out, during which Iran would eradicate Israel, which he referred to as a "cancerous tumour".

After the overthrow of the Shah in , most oil companies left Iran and Iranian government had major difficulties selling oil in the international markets. In the meantime, Marc Rich , an Israeli-Swiss businessman with international ties, entered Iran through his Glencore company headquartered in Switzerland. Rich ignored US and international sanctions on Iran and became the major trader of Iranian oil for 15 years. For his actions, United States government found him guilty of more than 65 counts of criminal offenses including money laundering and violating Iran sanctions.

There have been reports that former Mossad heads, Avner Azulay and Shabtai Shavit both personally wrote to Clinton arguing for Rich's pardon. In , the Seattle Times reported that pistachio makers in California were unhappy about the fact that Israel imported most of its pistachio from Iran.

The head of Iran-China economic room, Asadollah Asgaroladi said in the article that such transactions are easily possible. Based on the article Israel imports only a quarter of pistachios from US and about half of its pistachios from Britain and Germany , whereas these two countries are not producers of pistachio at all and the source is very likely to be from Iran.

Furthermore, in Israeli government punished the Hamama Brothers Co. Jones wrote a letter to Israel's finance minister Ronnie Bar-on demanding Israel to stop importing Iranian pistachios from Turkey. In , Israeli businessman Nahum Manbar was sentenced to 16 years in prison in Israel for doing business with Tehran , and in the course of the investigation, "hundreds of companies" were found to have illegal business dealings with Iran.

A controversy over Israeli-Iranian business links erupted in mid Israeli company Ofer Brothers Group was subject to U. The article reported that the oil from Iran arrives to Israel through a port in Rotterdam. Ynet reported that Israeli—Iranian trade, conducted covertly and illegally by dozens of Israeli companies, totals tens of millions of dollars a year. Much of this trade is conducted through a third country.

Israel supplies Iran with fertilizer, irrigation pipes, hormones for milk production, seeds, and fruit; Iran, meanwhile, provides Israel with marble, cashews, and pistachios. He expressed an interest in purchasing irrigation pipes, pesticides and fertilizers. In April a large batch of oranges carrying stickers of an Israeli company were distributed in the Iranian market. Based on the investigations the oranges were imported from Dubai. The system called NetEnforcer allows the government to monitor any device that is connected to the internet.

Israel vs. the World

The devices were shipped to Denmark, where the original packaging was removed and replaced with fake labels. Based on the report the Israeli experts spent the passover of in Iran. According to the report of the U. Department of Justice , and "unverified reports alleged that Israel agreed to sell Iran Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, radar equipment, mortar and machinegun ammunition, field telephones, M tank engines and artillery shells, and spare parts for C transport planes.

Iran supplies political support and weapons to Hamas , [] an organization committed to the destruction of Israel by Jihad [] According to Mahmoud Abbas , President of the Palestinian National Authority , "Hamas is funded by Iran. It claims it is financed by donations, but the donations are nothing like what it receives from Iran. Iran has also supplied another enemy of Israel, the militant organization Hezbollah with substantial amounts of financial, training, weapons, explosives, political, diplomatic, and organizational aid while persuading Hezbollah to take an action against Israel.

The nuclear program of Iran with its potential to develop nuclear weapons , together with the anti-Israel rhetoric of the President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and his desire for "the regime occupying Jerusalem" to "vanish from the pages of time," has led many Israelis to fear an eventual attack from Iran. Iran's repeated threats against Israel, particularly in , led Canada , a close ally of Israel, to close its embassy in Iran on September 7, , giving Iranian diplomats 5 days to leave Canada. On 21 September, at a military parade in Iran to mark the beginning of the Iran—Iraq War , and in which a new air defense system was unveiled, Amir Ali Hajizadeh , the Iranian air force chief, said that should a conflict between Iran and Israel break out, Israel would "manage the beginning of the war, but the response and end would be in our hands, in which case the Zionist entity would cease to exist.

The number of missiles launched would be more than the Zionists could imagine. On 22 September, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards , said that eventually a war with Israel would break out, during which Iran would eradicate Israel, which he referred to as a "cancerous tumor. Hajizadeh said that as a result of this attack, Israel would "sustain heavy damage and that will be a prelude to its obliteration.

Shirazi alleged that Israel was "close to annihilation," and allegedly sought to attack Iran out of desperation. Iran's actions, nuclear program, and threats have been viewed by Dr. Gregory Stanton, the founder and director of Genocide Watch , as having taken 6 out of 8 steps on the "path to genocide. He stressed that it is important not to dismiss "the early signs" as "diabolical rhetoric or as a tactic meant to advance a different goal," and doing so would "enable the perpetrators.

In addition, Stanton said that Iran has organized "fanatical militas," such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps , while stifling dissent in Iranian society. He added that by denying a previous genocide, the Holocaust , by working on weapons of mass destruction , and through global terrorism, Iran has prepared for genocide.

In January , Iran warned that any Israeli attack on Syria would be treated the same as an attack on Iran. In March , the commander of the Basij militia of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said that "erasing Israel off the map is not negotiable. In November a Scottish newspaper claimed that Israel "warned that it is prepared to take unilateral military action against Iran if the international community fails to stop any development of nuclear weapons at the country's atomic energy facilities.

It was claimed that the special forces command was in the highest stage of readiness for an attack state G in December of the following year. Ariel Sharon reportedly said, "Israel - and not only Israel - cannot accept a nuclear Iran. We have the ability to deal with this and we're making all the necessary preparations to be ready for such a situation. Department of Defense civilians led by Douglas Feith have been working with Israeli planners and consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear, chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran.

Shabtai Shavit , a former chief of the Mossad , said Iranian atomic facilities could be destroyed within a year, but has not ruled out going that direction. Isaac Ben-Israel , a former general of the Israeli Air Force , said an attack could be carried out at any time but only as a last resort. The Bush administration rejected the requests. According to the article, White House officials never conclusively determined whether Israel had decided to go ahead with the strike before the United States protested, or whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel was trying to goad the White House into more decisive action before President Bush left office.

This is our policy; we mean it. We recommend to others to take the same position, but we cannot dictate it to anyone. On 5 November , Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his willingness to mount a unilateral attack on Iran's nuclear facilities even without US support.

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Israel currently only has the GBU bunker busting munitions, which are said to be insufficient. However, with the announcement by Netanyahu being made on the eve of the Presidential elections, tensions between the two allies are likely to rise. In , retiring defense minister Ehud Barak said that though it would be very difficult for Israel to operate alone, that Obama had ordered the Pentagon to prepare detailed plans for an American strike on Iran.

Netanyahu said in September that President Hassan Rouhani is trying to acquire a nuclear weapon, and that his perception as a moderate makes him a "wolf in sheep's clothing. In January , during a plenary session at the 9th World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland , the President of Israel Shimon Peres said in response to a question about the threat of Iran's nuclear program that "Iran is not an enemy", and there are no historical hostilities between the two countries.

In that regard he added: In May , it was revealed that Prime Minister Netanyahu had ordered the Mossad and military in to prepare for an attack on Iran within 15 days of receiving the order. In June , Israel conducted a major military exercise that American officials speculated might be training for a bombing attack on Iran. A senior Pentagon official said one of the goals of the exercise was to send a clear message to the United States and other countries that Israel was prepared to act militarily: The Bush administration did agree to sell a thousand GBU standoff bunker penetrating bombs to Israel, but a strike against Natanz would require hundreds of these bombs.

In a interview, American diplomat John Bolton argued that the Iran—Israel relationship had deteriorated to the point that it might be "wise" for Israel to preemptively attack Iran's nuclear research facilities. To destroy the facilities, while not a permanent solution to ending Iran's nuclear ambitions, he argued, might delay the progress of Iranian nuclear research for long enough that regime change could occur before the development of a nuclear weapon took place. He cited as an example the case of the apartheid government of South Africa , which renounced their efforts to pursue nuclear weapons after the Mandela government came to power.

In April , Army General David Petraeus said "the Israeli government may ultimately see itself so threatened by the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon that it would take preemptive military action to derail or delay it. The global price of oil is likely to increase suddenly and dramatically should Israel strike Iran's nuclear facilities. It is just as likely, although not to the same degree, that the price of oil will increase if Iran successfully develops nuclear weapons.

Iran consistently claimed that its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes, and that it has no intention of ever utilizing its peaceful nuclear program to develop nuclear weapons. During the course of Iran's recent history, specifically during the Iran-Iraq war, Iran has experienced significant outages of its commercial electricity grid. Iran has also continuously claimed that it intends to ultimately export part of the electricity produced by its nuclear reactors to its regional neighbors, as a way of diversifying its mainly oil-based economy to more diversified revenue streams.

German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere said in that an Israeli attack would be unlikely to succeed. Iran's former foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki declared that Israel was not capable of an attack and still recovering from the war in Lebanon. According to Mohammad Ali Jafari "If Israel military aggresses against sovereignty and independence of the Islamic Republic of Iran , the country will use its right, established under international law which unequivocally establishes the right to defend its sovereignty by all lawful means available to it.

Moreover, if such aggression is penetrated, the United Nations will be obliged to repulse such an aggression towards its sovereign member". According to the Tehran Times , Khamenei told Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdullah Shallah , "Israel is going downhill toward decline and fall and God willing its obliteration is certain".

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Iran–Israel relations

Israel vs. the World