The Iran-Israel Stand-off: Perceptions, Politics and Prognoses

Israel and Iran are considered to be the Middle East's key nemeses – a stand-off replete with mutual recriminations, threats and covert ops, occasionally threatening to drag the region into a new conflict. But what stands behind how Israel and Iran view each other? How important is opposition to the other in each side's legitimating ideology, threat perceptions and political discourse? How does hostility to Israel play out in Iranian domestic politics and vice-versa? Are Israel and Iran on a one-way only path to an eventual military clash or might one or both sides be looking for or amenable to taking an off-ramp? And is the nuclear file cause or symptom in Israeli-Iranian relations? 

ECFR is delighted to bring together two respected experts and analysts each specializing in one side of this equation, Ali Ansari and Nadav Eyal, to shed light on this most thorny and potentially fateful of Middle Eastern animosities. Prof. Ansari will be visiting us from St. Andrews University and Nadav Eyal from Tel Aviv. While the discussion will focus on Israel and Iran's respective perceptions and policies, the speakers will also touch on how these play out in regional developments and notably the Syria conflict.   

Ali Ansari is Professor of Iranian History at St. Andrews University in Scotland, where he is also the founding director of the Institute for Iranian Studies. He is also an Associate Fellow at Chatham House and sits on the Governing Council of the British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS). Prof. Ansari is the author of The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran

Nadav Eyal directs Israel’s Channel 10 International News desk and a senior columinst for Ma'ariv.   He deals extensively with Israel's international relations and the growing tension with Iran, focusing on US-Israel discussions. In 2012, Eyal was listed by Globes – the Israeli business magazine – as one of the 100 most influential people in Israeli media.

Daniel Levy is the Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at ECFR. He is also a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, and a founding co-editor of foreignpolicy.com’s Middle East Channel. Levy was a former Israeli official peace negotiator and adviser in the PM’s office.