Before the Hatred: When Iran and Israel Were Allies

Picture this: El Al flights landing in Tehran. Israeli engineers building Iranian infrastructure. Iranian oil fueling Israeli cities. Israeli intelligence training Iranian security forces.

This isn’t some utopian fantasy—it’s history. And it wasn’t that long ago.

In the present moment, as we are shaken by the news of a new war, it may seem as if the story of Iran and Israel is one of eternal enmity. But as Prime Minister Netanyahu emphasized in his war announcement, addressing the Iranian people: “Our fight is not with you. Our fight is with the brutal dictatorship that has oppressed you for 46 years. When that happens, the great friendship between our two ancient peoples will flourish once again.”

Let’s not become prisoners of the present. The truth is, there was a time when Iran and Israel stood side by side—not as enemies, but as allies.

Ancient Bonds

Long before modern states, the friendship between Persians and Jews stretched back millennia. King Cyrus the Great is honored in Jewish tradition for liberating the Jews from Babylonian exile and allowing them to rebuild the Second Temple. Centuries later, the Sassanian Empire became a center of Jewish life, producing luminaries like Rav Ashi, a key editor of the Babylonian Talmud.

Cyrus the Great releases Jews from the Babylonian captivity to resettle and rebuild Jerusalem. Jean Fouquet, 1470.

Even after the Islamic conquest, Persian-Jewish relations remained remarkably stable. Medieval travelers marveled at thriving Jewish communities in Isfahan, Shiraz, and beyond. This wasn’t mere tolerance—it was genuine coexistence between two ancient civilizations.

The Shah’s Iran: A Strategic Friendship

Under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (r. 1941–1979), that ancient respect blossomed into a modern alliance. From the early 1950s until the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran and Israel maintained a quiet, pragmatic partnership grounded in shared strategic interests.

Iran supplied up to 60% of Israel’s oil through a discreet pipeline. El Al flights connected Tel Aviv and Tehran. Israeli experts aided Iranian agriculture, while Iranian students studied in Israeli universities.

Iranian minister Reza Saffinia arriving at the house of Israeli president Chaim Weizmann in Rehovot on Yom Ha’atzmaut, 1950. (Israel Press Office)

Behind the scenes, cooperation ran deeper. Mossad helped train the Shah’s secret police, SAVAK. Israeli leaders like Rabin and Peres visited Tehran to coordinate policy. Both nations saw themselves as non-Arab powers in a hostile region, fostering alignment based on mutual security concerns.

For Iran’s Jewish community—then around 80,000—this was a golden age. They served in government, thrived in business, and maintained vibrant religious life. Synagogues operated freely, kosher food was available, and Jewish schools flourished.

1979: The Revolution That Rewrote History

In February 1979, everything changed. The Ayatollah Khomeini swept into power, toppling the Shah and ushering in a regime driven by militant Shi’ite ideology.

Within days, Iran cut ties with Israel—and made a spectacle of it. The former Israeli embassy in Tehran was handed to the PLO. Yasser Arafat raised the Palestinian flag where the Star of David once flew. In one stroke, decades of discreet cooperation were erased and replaced by open hostility.

Khomeini’s words were chilling: “We must all rise to destroy Israel.” Israel was now the “Little Satan,” alongside the American “Great Satan.” The new regime didn’t just adopt the Palestinian cause—it made it sacred.

Iranian Minister Plenipotentiary Reza Safinia, center, who represented Tehran in Israel, chats with then-prime minister David Ben-Gurion at a party in Jerusalem, June 1, 1950. (photo credit: Teddy Brauner/GPO)

Khomeini also inaugurated Quds Day, turning the last Friday of Ramadan into an annual rally for Israel’s destruction. Tehran’s streets filled with chants of “Death to Israel,” flag burnings, and speeches denouncing Zionism as a corrosive threat.

But this wasn’t just political—it was ideological and antisemitic. Supreme Leader Khamenei repeatedly described Israel in pathological terms, calling for its eradication and denying the legitimacy of Jewish self-determination. The rhetoric blurred the line between opposing a state and denying a people’s right to exist.

Yet even within this atmosphere, a remnant of Iran’s ancient Jewish community—some 10,000 strong—endures. Their continued presence speaks to a deeper truth: the ties between Jews and Persians, forged over millennia, are not so easily erased.

A War Against Memory

This transformation was not just geopolitical—it was an assault on memory. The regime has worked tirelessly to erase the history of Persian-Jewish friendship, replacing millennia of coexistence with manufactured hatred.

But memory is stubborn.

Top Iranian military officials Hasan Toofanian and Bahram Ariana (left), meet with Israeli officers in the headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces, 1975. (photo credit: public domain, Wikimedia Commons)

Iranian exiles still speak warmly of their Jewish neighbors. Israeli-Iranians preserve Persian culture, cuisine, and language. And even inside Iran, cracks in the narrative persist. It’s widely believed that some of Israel’s most daring intelligence operations—including strikes on nuclear sites—were made possible with help from brave Iranians themselves. These quiet acts of defiance suggest a different story is still unfolding—one rooted in shared interests and mutual respect.

Netanyahu recently spoke to this possibility: “The peoples of those two countries now have a chance for a different future, a better future. So, too, do the brave people of Iran.”

This isn’t just political hope—it’s a moral one. History shows Iran and Israel were not destined for conflict. Once, they built together. Perhaps one day, they will again—not as enemies, but as partners with shared memory and mutual respect.

May we live to see those days return.

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