Iran’s and Israel’s relationship since Israel was created

Fernanda Costa

After the Iranian attack on Israel’s Territory, the world has been wondering about the relationship between these two countries. However, this is the first time since Iran has attacked the region of Israel. Both countries have been in conflict since 1979 when the Iranian Revolution happened. 

Map of where the conflict is currently taking place

In 1948, a few years after the Second World War and the Holocaust took place. Britain gave up their occupied Palestine to the Jews. On May 14th, the head of the Jewish State, David Ben-Gurion, declared that Israel was officially a state. The current area of Israel was once part of Palestine. This is why both countries have conflicted with each other since Israel was created. 

One year later, in 1949, the Arabs went to war with Israel. The motive? The  Arabs did not wish that the Jewish State was established. When Israel won the war, they were acknowledged by Turkey, and then Iran, making Iran the second mostly-Muslim country to accept Israel. 

The relationship between the two countries went smoothly into 1979 when the Iranian Revolution came, the government of Iran cut all diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel and claimed they did not believe that Israel was a country that should be acknowledged. 

Since 1985, Israel and Iran have been in a proxy war. (A proxy war is when two countries are in ‘war’ with each other, but never directly attack each other's territory. An extremely famous example of a proxy war is the Cold War). One of these proxy events would be the Iranians helping Hamas. Iran wasn’t attacking Israel themselves, instead, they helped and encouraged the attack of October 7 2023. 

On April 13, Iran sent multiple missiles and drones towards Israel’s military-related locations. 

The reason for this attack happened on the First of April when Israel bombarded the Consulate of Iran in Syria, killing 7 of their members, including their Military General. There is no exact reason why Israel decided to destroy Iran’s Consulate, however, it is speculated that it happened since Iran has been a supporter and helper of the Palestinian group, the Hamas, and other anti-Israel groups/countries. 

As a result, Iran and its allies, Yemen and Lebanon, joined forces against Israel. The United States and Israel report that 99% of the missiles have been intercepted, except for a few military bases in Israel.