Iran Invented Zionism

From Cyrus the Great to Khamenei the Terrible

Cyrus the Great permitting exiled Jews to return to the Holy Land, as depicted by Jean Fouquet circa 1470. Source: Wikimedia Commons

“They’ll dress in black, their headdresses will be made / Of twisted lengths of silk or black brocade. There’ll be no golden boots or banners then / Our crowns and thrones will not be seen again…. The winter and the spring will pass unmarked, no one will bring the wine to celebrate such moments then / Instead they’ll spill the blood of fellow men.”

— Persian general Rustam, lamenting the coming of the Ayatollahs in 636 CE¹

Iran is a non-Arab, non–Sunni Muslim country. It doesn’t share a border with Israel, let alone have any territorial claims against the Jewish state. Nor, before Iran began threatening Israel, did Israel ever threaten Iran. Why, then, does Iran champion the most extreme positions of the Arab, Sunni Muslim Palestinians, many of whom view the Shi’ite Iranians as heretics?² Why does it seek Israel’s destruction absent any logical geopolitical motive, even at the risk of the regime’s own ruin? The Arab countries that historically attacked Israel sought to gain new territory, avenge lost wars, and restore collective honor. But Iran obviously can’t absorb the Holy Land into a pan-Arab state, and has no wounded national pride to salve. Why then, the anti-Zionist death wish?

According to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, “The goal of establishing a [Zionist] government in this sensitive part of the world of Islam was to maintain the hegemony of the colonialist powers of the time, headed by the English government, over the world of Islam.” Per Khamenei, America has now taken on the British role of Israel’s colonial sponsor. Ultimately, however, Zionism is just the latest Western plot to divide and weaken the Islamic world, an effort that started with the Crusades. Thus, “The Zionist regime is a usurping and fake state” and a “cancerous tumor.” The Ayatollah is adamantly opposed to any sort of peace agreement or territorial compromise: “We believe that annihilation of the Israeli regime is the solution to the issue of Palestine.” Consequently, Iran has tried to turn rhetoric into reality by encircling Israel with a terrorist “ring of fire” via Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shi’ite militias in Iraq and Syria, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen.

Ironically, though, ancient Iran itself was a proto-Zionist empire. Beginning in 597 BCE, the Babylonians invaded the Kingdom of Judah and expelled large numbers of Jews to Mesopotamia. After the Persians conquered the Babylonian Empire in 539 BCE, they permitted the exiled Jews to return to their homeland. The Edict of Cyrus, as recorded in the Hebrew Bible, was thus the Balfour Declaration of its time: “Thus said King Cyrus of Persia: The LORD God of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and has charged me with building Him a House in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Any one of you of all His people, the LORD his God be with him and let him go up.” Under Persian authority, the Holy Temple was rebuilt, while the prophet Ezra renewed ritual observance among the people. The Persians ruled the autonomous, Jewish-governed province of Yehud until its conquest by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE.

Cyrus was not uniquely pro-Jewish, but rather had a general policy of supporting the repatriation of exiles and rebuilding of temples. As the ruler of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious empire, his “universal Zionism” was undoubtedly self-interested, as it encouraged subject peoples to accept Persian rule. Still, Cyrus is described in both Greek and Hebrew sources as a model king, and remains so in Iranian culture and beyond. The Greek historian Xenophon wrote, “What other man but Cyrus, after having overturned an empire, ever died with the title of The Father from the people whom he had brought under his power?” Cyrus inspired Enlightenment thinkers and statesmen like Thomas Jefferson, while the cuneiform-inscribed Cyrus Cylinder has been described as the “first bill on human rights.” President Harry Truman, who supported the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948, once declared that “I am Cyrus.” Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s exiled crown prince, has proposed an alliance with Israel to be called the Cyrus Accords. The question for Iran is whether the legacy of King Cyrus or Ayatollah Khomeini, enlightened pragmatism or fanatical intolerance, will define its future.

As part of their war with the Byzantines, the Persians briefly reconquered the Holy Land and granted Jews autonomous rule over Jerusalem from 614 to 617 CE. However, the Persians turned against their erstwhile Jewish allies and were themselves driven out by the Byzantines about a decade later. The Arabs, energized and unified by the new religion of Islam, then conquered Jerusalem in 638 CE and the entire Persian Empire by 654 CE. However, while the Persians (with some exceptions) ultimately abandoned their ancestral Zoroastrian religion, they resisted Arabization and maintained a distinct ethno-national identity. By contrast, for example, with the Egyptians—who were never historically Arab but have, apart from the Copts, severed all ties with their pre-Islamic past—we can speak of unbroken Persian continuity. The Persians retained their language, established independent dynasties in the ninth and tenth centuries, and glorified their history in epic poems like the tenth-century Shahnameh. While they were never, like the Jews, reduced to minority status or driven into exile, the Persians are also an ancient people who’ve resisted foreign subjugation with their pride and traditions intact. L'dor vador.

In modern times, Iran voted against the creation of the Jewish state in 1947. However, in 1950, Iran became the second Muslim country (after Turkey) to recognize Israel. Per Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s “periphery doctrine,” Israel sought alliances with non-Arab states (like Turkey and Iran) and minority groups (like the Kurds and Lebanese Maronites³). Accordingly, under Shah Reza Pahlavi, the Iranians developed close ties with Israel, ranging from robust bilateral trade to joint weapons projects.⁴ However, the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which overthrew the Shah, established an Iranian theocracy implacably opposed to Israel (henceforth the “Little Satan,” with America as the “Great Satan”). During the Iran-Iraq war, Israel covertly supplied arms to Iran, viewing Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as the greater regional threat. But despite this support, Iran’s revolutionary regime remained implacably hostile to Israel. Iran has opposed all peace negotiations between Israelis and Arabs, including the Palestinians themselves; sponsored terrorism against Jewish targets (notably a 1994 bombing in Argentina); and waged a long-standing proxy war against the Jewish state.

To return to our starting question, though: Why? Ultimately, in Khomeini’s own words, because “Our movement is Islamic before being Iranian.” Famously, when asked by a reporter how he felt about returning to Iran after 15 years of exile, Khomeini replied, “Nothing.” The Islamic Republic of Iran does not fundamentally care about the interests of Iran. According to its guiding ideology, Shi’ites are the vanguard of a pan-Islamic revolution; Iran itself is merely the staging ground. In the long view of history, the Middle East has been home to a multitude of nationalities, including Jews, Persians, Assyrians, Kurds, and Arabs. It’s also the birthplace of the great Abrahamic traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—and numerous smaller sects ranging from the Yazidis to the Druze. But to Islamists whose history begins with the seventh-century Arab conquests, any land won by the sword of Islam is Muslim territory that can never be forfeited. National identity is nothing compared to the ummah (community of believers), while non-Muslims in the historic dar al-Islam (house of Islam) must convert or accept subservient dhimmi status.⁵

For that reason, the Islamic Republic will never accept Jewish sovereignty in a land previously conquered by Muslims.⁶ But nor can it truly accept Iranian nationalism, because that would mean recognizing that Iran has a cultural heritage and national interest distinct from Khomeinist Islam. State media describes the Supreme Leader as Vali Amr Muslemin, “leader of all Muslims.” But many Iranians would prefer a leader of all Iranians instead. In response to the regime’s support for transnational jihadism while living standards fell at home, protesters chanted, “No Gaza, no Lebanon, I give my life for Iran.” Iranians increasingly reject Islam-e-Akhondi (“the Islam of the clerics”) in favor of secularism, a more private Islam, or even other religions like Christianity and Zoroastrianism.⁷ Despite the regime’s disapproval, annual gatherings continue at the tomb of Cyrus, women defy the rulings of the modesty police, and the young circulate nostalgic videos of life under the Shah. Cyrus once said, “Freedom, dignity, wealth–these three together constitute the greatest happiness of humanity. If you bequeath all three to your people, their love for you will never die.” The Islamic Republic deprives Iranians of all three. The Abraham Accords show that a Middle East of national pluralism, not religious enmity, is possible. In that spirit, may Iran reclaim the legacy of its greatest king and choose peaceful co-existence over endless war.

1. Quoted in Hugh Kennedy, The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In (2007), pp. 358–360.

2. According to a 2012 Pew survey, 40% of Palestinians do not accept Shi’ites as fellow Muslims.

3. The Christian Maronites speak Arabic but often identify as ethnically Lebanese or Phoenician.

4. My brother-in-law’s Israeli father claimed, perhaps apocryphally, to have dated the Shah’s niece while stationed in Tehran in the 1970s.

5. Some non-Muslims, like Iran’s Baha’is, are not even accorded dhimmi status, but considered “unprotected infidels” subject to intense persecution.

6. There’s also a uniquely Shi’ite angle to Iranian anti-Zionism. According to the regime’s eschatological rhetoric, a final battle with the Jews will precede the return of the messianic 12th Imam.

7. According to a 2020 GAMAAN online survey, only 40% of Iranians identify as Muslim, while 46.6% identify with a non-religious label like “none” or atheist. The largest minority religion is Zoroastrianism, at 7.7% (though the authors interpret this primarily as a reflection of Persian nationalism). In a sign of how political Islam discredits the faith itself, 47% said they had abandoned their religion at some point in their lives, while 6% reported converting to a different religion.