The Iran-Israel War | Ilan Ziv & Vincent de Cointet

3 part series – The historical and political survey of the Israel-Iran war.

Israel-Iran’s war began with the 1979 Iranian revolution. Israel was perceived as a colonial implant in the region ; its support of the Shah and its dreaded secret police was seen as a proof. However, it was Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, and its attempt to redraw the political map of the Middle East that gave Iran the opportunity to step in, support the oppressed Shiite community of Lebanon and confront Israel.

Israel went into Lebanon to destroy the PLO, then deemed a mortal enemy, and was driven into a war with a far more dangerous and sophisticated enemy – Iran, and its creation: Hezbollah. Iran and Hezbollah developed a sophisticated war strategy that combined suicide bombings against civilian and military targets with a vast social welfare network that provided the Shiite community of Lebanon what the Lebanese State never did. Israel found itself not only struggling against a stubborn and militarily competent enemy but also against a resolute, politicized and organized civilian population.