14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Iran and Israel Looking in Each Other's Mirror, June 23, 2009
This review is from: Iranophobia: The Logic of an Israeli Obsession (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and I) (Paperback)
Haggai Ram examines with much clarity and expertise Israel's multi-layered obsession with Iran before and after the revolution of 1979 (pp. 16; 27; 101-102; 126). Mr. Ram attributes the Iranophobia in the Israeli public sphere not only to the hostility of Iran towards Israel after the revolution of 1979 but also to the current and future direction of secular Zionism (pp. 1; 52).
A. Iranian-Israeli Hostility
Iran and Israel have been locked in a strategic rivalry for military supremacy in an unstable region that lacks a clear pecking order (pp. 69; 123). The threats and counter-threats that Iran and Israel have persistently made against each other reflect genuine feelings of vulnerability on both sides that are anchored in their respective histories (pp. 36; 89; 123).
Israel relies on its military superiority and nuclear arsenal to avoid a second Holocaust (pp. 36; 90-91). Unsurprisingly, many Israeli are inclined to compare the threatening President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Adolf Hitler and Iran's suspected nuclear program to Nazi Germany's series of aggressions in the 1930s (pp. 9; 90-92; 94; 111-112).
Mr. Ram reminds his audience that most people who make these comparisons fail to mention that Iran has the largest, largely prosperous Jewish community in the Middle East (p. 92). To the perplexity of many Jews outside Iran, most Iranians Jews do not want to leave Iran (pp. 21; 107-112; 117-119; 131). Past discrimination, if not outright racism, to which incoming Jews from Iran were subjected in Israel, is one explanation given to make sense of their attitude towards Aliyah (pp. 113-114; 117-119). Furthermore, Mr. Ram observes that many Iranians do not share the obsession of President Ahmadinejad with Israel and his anti-Semitism (pp. 89-90; 92; 121). The average Iranian is more worried about other issues than Israel (p. 121).
Iran is challenging Israel's military superiority and is more than probably developing its own nuclear arsenal for different reasons (pp. 42-44). First, Iran feels surrounded by enemies or potential enemies, i.e., nuclear Russia in the North, Iraq in the South and Afghanistan in the East, both of which are occupied by hostile American forces (p. 88). Secondly, Iran observes the inconsistent enforcement of nuclear non-proliferation regulations towards India and volatile Pakistan by nuclear U.S. and nuclear Israel (p. 88). Despite the Islamist millenarian agenda, the chance that Iran will actually employ its eventual nuclear weapons is extremely low according to some Israeli experts (pp. 43-44). Thirdly, Iran's insecurity cannot be properly understood without the related contexts of monarchic despotism and Iran's entanglement with the history of Western colonialism since the early nineteenth century (pp. 27-28; 44; 124). Iran perceives the current U.S.-led campaign against its nuclear program as an echo of past colonial enterprises that has kept the country in a state of structural underdevelopment (p. 44). Nationalist identity remains a vital force in post-1979 Iran (pp. 24; 45-46). Finally, Iran does not forget the complicity of Israel with the Shah's repressive policies (pp. 31-33; 52-53; 58-59; 61). Westernizing Iran under the Shah was part of Israel's outer-ring of non-Arab states of the Middle East needed to counter the expansion of Arab radicalism and Soviet influence (pp. 28; 36-38; 41; 53; 56; 76; 103; 125).
B. Israeli Domestic Politics
Mr. Ram controversially suggests that Israel's approaches to and anxieties about Iran were greatly influenced not only by the Israeli-Egyptian peace process of 1977-1981, but also by the Likud's victory in the 1977 elections and the rise of the religious Zionist settler movement since the mid-1970s (pp. 18; 35; 47; 63-64).
Like Westernizing Iran before the revolution of 1979, `Ashkenized' Israel was secularizing, de-Orientalizing its Jewish immigrants in the mold of Euro-America (pp. 6-7; 55; 63; 97-100; 103; 116-117; 128; 131). Israel, since its foundation in 1948, has been keen to project the image of being the beacon of Western rationality and civility in an increasingly volatile, hostile, irrational, and fanatical region (pp. 4; 54-56; 70; 83; 94; 105; 108; 127-129). In the 1977 national election, the Likud party ended nearly thirty years of Labor party rule by appealing to many Mizrahi (Oriental) Israelis who were being treated by the Ashkenazi (European) Jewish ethno-class as second-class citizens (pp. 63; 128). Many Israelis feel that present-day Iranian realities are in effect actualizations of Israel's future (pp. 39; 49; 62; 67; 127-128; 131). The rise of religious parties has shown that Israel cannot fully subscribe to the separation between religion and secularism (pp. 5; 64; 66). Unsurprisingly, many Russian immigrants in Israel espouse anti-Mizrahi sentiments because they support separation of religion from state (p. 68).
Mr. Ram also notes that like many other countries, Israel has been quick to jump on the Bush administration's anti-terrorist agenda since 9/11 (p. 20). The author states that Israel has, with the full backing of the United States, hijacked the antiterrorist agenda to rationalize and vindicate 1) its brutal regime in the occupied territories, 2) the devastation of Lebanon by its military in summer 2006, and 3) its devastating military campaign in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009 (pp. 7; 74-75; 85; 123; 132-134). Israel wants to convince the international community in the post-9/11 world that Palestinian and Lebanese politics are merely a puppet show in which Iran is pulling the strings (pp. 20; 51; 73-74; 79-81; 83-85; 94-95). However, Hezbollah and Hamas are also grassroots movements that intend to represent the most disenfranchised subaltern communities in their respective polities (p. 93).
Despite Iranian-Israeli animosities, and despite everything else, Mr. Ram reminds his audience that there still exist some intact bridges between both countries through the intermediation of Turkey (pp. 6; 117). For this reason, Turkey could play a key role in the new approach of U.S. President Barack Obama to global politics, including Iran (p. 134).
To summarize, the book under review is not for the faint of heart. Some readers will call Mr. Ram's book `blasphemous' because it bluntly challenges many clichés about Iran and Israel.
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1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A recommended read for anyone trying to get a greater understanding of today's middle eastern conflict, September 14, 2009
This review is from: Iranophobia: The Logic of an Israeli Obsession (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and I) (Paperback)
Imagine if the United States had to fear nuclear strikes from Canada - that's a similar fear Israelis have from the potential development of Iranian nuclear weapons. "Iranophobia: The Logic of Israeli Obsession" discusses the conflict of the middle east and how the root of the problem lies not in geopolitical conflicts, but instead a series of long, deep seated problems between the two cultures. "Iranophobia" is a recommended read for anyone trying to get a greater understanding of today's middle eastern conflict.
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