Defending the Truth

How Iran Could Help End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

By Robert Zelnick
October 2007

Robert Zelnick is Journalism Professor of National Security Studies at Boston University and a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

In invading Iraq, the U.S. unintentionally threw open the door to the expansion of Iranian influence in the region. With the U.S.’s commitment to majority rule, the Shia took political control of Iraq, and neighboring states watched in horror as Iran’s tentacles went deep into the new Iraq. Meanwhile, with U.S. attention diverted, Iran’s nuclear rhetoric grew bolder. Led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the once meddlesome Iran emerged as a legitimate area threat.

As regional concern over Iran changed to anxiety, priorities shifted in Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Just after the Hamas takeover of Gaza on June 14, I began a five-week visit to these states, meeting with senior officials. I wanted to explore how the cataclysms in Iraq and Lebanon, coupled with the Gaza coup, might have altered the landscape for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

While events in Gaza were the immediate preoccupation, the dominant and related issue on most minds was what could be done to check Iran. ”Iran is working on two things: building the bomb and building an empire,” said one Jordanian intelligence official. ”They are trying to become a major regional power. Oil prices, the failure to achieve peace, U.S. problems in Iraq, and the marginalization of moderate Arab countries are helping.” So deep is this concern that once implacable positions have become pliant and uncooperative parties now stand ready to compromise.

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E-Notes: How Iran Could Help End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - FPRI