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Fatal Attraction: Understanding the Israel-Iran Relationship. Lior Sternfeld (Penn State University)
Join us for an expert analysis of one of geopolitics’ most consequential and misunderstood relationships.
Few know that Iran was the second Muslim country to recognise Israel after 1949, initiating three decades of close partnership that included Israeli support for the Shah’s regime. The 1979 Iranian Revolution dramatically altered this alliance, officially severing diplomatic ties on February 1, 1979. Yet, paradoxically, behind the fierce rhetoric, covert collaboration continued during the brutal eight-year Iran-Iraq war. Since then, these nations have existed in a precarious state of mutual hostility and dangerous brinkmanship. This lecture examines the complex dynamics between these countries and their societies, with special attention to the significant developments and escalating tensions of the past 18 months.
Lior Sternfeld is Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Penn State University. He is a social historian of the modern Middle East, specialising in the histories of Jewish communities and other minorities in the region. His first book, Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran (Stanford University Press, 2018), explores the integration of Jewish communities into Iran’s nation-building projects, set against the backdrop of Iranian nationalism, Zionism, and constitutionalism. Currently, he is working on two book projects: The Origins of Third Worldism in the Middle East and a study of the Iranian-Jewish diaspora in the U.S. and Israel.
The Peter Summerfield Public Lecture is part of the Max and Hilde Kochmann Summer School for PhD students organised by the Sussex Weidenfeld Institute of Jewish Studies in cooperation with the Centre for Jewish Studies of the Karl Franz Universität in Graz and the European Association of Israel Studies.