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Monday, April 13, 2015
The Demand for Iranian Recognition of Israel

The Demand for Iranian Recognition of Israel
INSS Insight No. 683, April 13, 2015
Ephraim Kam
http://www.inss.org.il/index.aspx?id=4538&articleid=9205

SUMMARY: Following the April 2, 2015 statement on parameters toward a
comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear program formulated between
the P5+1 and Iran, the Israeli government announced its demand that the
final agreement include Iran’s recognition of Israel. President Obama was
quick to reject the condition, arguing that it amounts to Israel’s demand
that no agreement be signed unless Iran undertakes a comprehensive reform of
its regime. Nonetheless, this does not mean that there was no point in
Israel raising the issue. On the contrary, correct diplomacy can and must
stress the connection between the radical fundamentalist regime in Iran,
with its public calls for the destruction of the State of Israel, and Iran’s
possession of nuclear weapons, which would spell the most severe threat to
Israel’s security.

Following the April 2, 2015 statement on parameters toward a comprehensive
agreement on the Iranian nuclear program formulated between the P5+1 and
Iran, the Israeli government announced its demand that the final agreement
include Iran’s recognition of Israel. President Obama was quick to reject
the condition, arguing that it amounts to Israel’s demand that no agreement
be signed unless Iran undertakes a comprehensive reform of its regime.

If President Obama thought there was a reasonable chance Iran would accept
this condition, he presumably would have endorsed it and demanded that Iran
recognize Israel as part of the nuclear deal. Acceptance by Iran would be
quite a feather in the administration’s cap, because it would help it allay
Israel’s concern about Iran’s nuclearization; reduce Israeli criticism of
the agreement by demonstrating that there has been a real change in Iran’s
stance – not only on the nuclear issue; and provide a partial response to
domestic US criticism in Congress and the media of the administration’s
conduct in the nuclear talks and of the agreement in the making.

However, the President sees little chance of Iran accepting the condition
and is worried that an attempt to place it on the nuclear agenda is liable
to disrupt the talks and severely threaten the successful formulation of a
final agreement. Thus, the administration again accepted Iran’s position
whereby the talks must focus only on the nuclear issue and the sanctions on
Iran; expanding the talks to include other topics is liable to lead to their
failure. Therefore the administration conceded its initial demand to include
Iran’s ballistic missiles in the talks because Iran insisted they had
nothing to do with the nuclear issue but were an Iranian national security
matter. For the same reason, during the talks the administration avoided
bringing up Iran’s aid to the Houthis in Yemen, saying that raising the
issue would further complicate the already difficult nuclear agenda. Iran’s
human rights violations and deep involvement in terrorism both in the Middle
East and around the globe were likewise excluded from the agenda. Iran
refused to discuss any of these because it would have had to make
concessions; it assessed correctly that the administration would back down
so as not to create further tensions at the negotiating table and possibly
disrupt the talks.

A US demand that Iran recognize Israel as part of the nuclear agreement
would presumably be rejected outright by the Iranian regime, first and
foremost by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei himself. The extreme
anti-Israeli hatred and rhetoric against Israel were mandated by Khomeini,
the leader of the Islamic Revolution, long before he ruled Iran, and are
basic components of the radical fundamentalist doctrine of the Islamic
regime. In the eyes of the Iranian leadership, Israel has no right to exist
as a political entity because Judaism is not a nationality, only a religion,
a view reflected in statements made by both Khamenei and former President
Ahmadinejad.

The regime contends that denying Israel’s right to exist is justified by the
trio of wrongs that underpin Israel’s establishment and existence: the
oppression of millions of Muslims under Israeli rule, the denial of the
Palestinians’ legitimate right to a state on all of Palestinian land, and
Israeli control of land holy to Islam, especially in Jerusalem. Hence there
is also an obligation on Muslims to liberate those lands through a holy war
of reconquest rather than through an inherently unacceptable political
settlement. To Khomeini, recognition of Israel is also unacceptable because
the country – a foreign body in the heart of the Muslim world – was
established by Western imperialism intent on dividing and weakening the
Muslim world so as to be better able to exploit it. In his opinion, no
compromise or concession in the struggle against Israel is possible because
this is a struggle between the forces of justice and the forces of
oppression and heresy. Therefore, the eradication of Israel and the
liberation of Jerusalem are an integral part of the ultimate success of the
Islamic movement, stemming from the founding principles of the revolution
and, indeed, Islam itself. Recognition of Israel would thus be tantamount to
destroying one of the pillars of the Iranian regime.

Yet even if the refusal to recognize Israel is a mainstay of the Iranian
regime’s worldview or at least that of its radical leadership, this does not
necessarily mean that nothing can be done about it. While the current
Iranian leadership would likely not agree to recognize Israel, it is
possible that at some future point a quiet understanding between the US
administration and the Iranian regime can be reached whereby Iran’s leaders
will stop calling for the destruction of Israel. Since his election,
President Rouhani has avoided denying the Holocaust, seeing the pitfall
created Ahmadinejad. However, recognition of Israel will not happen anytime
soon and it is in any case unlikely that the administration will raise the
issue as part of the nuclear talks. In the longer term, if the talks lead to
a permanent agreement that paves the way for a more positive atmosphere
between the US and Iran and perhaps also to a more extensive dialogue on
other regional issues – as is Obama’s hope – it may be that the US
administration will rethink the demand to recognize Israel. In the even
longer term, a change in Iran’s attitude to Israel could occur if there is a
change in the essential nature of the Iranian regime – a change that if at
all possible, is far in the future.

Thus while before any final agreement on the nuclear program is signed the
Obama administration will likely not demand that Iran recognize Israel, this
does not mean that there was no point in Israel raising the issue. On the
contrary, correct diplomacy can and must stress the connection between the
radical fundamentalist regime in Iran, with its public calls for the
destruction of the State of Israel, and Iran’s possession of nuclear
weapons, which would spell the most severe threat to the country’s security.
Even if Obama hurried to reject Israel’s demand outright – apparently
concerned that it might generate enough domestic pressure to endorse the
demand – it can be understood by a significant portion of the Congress and
the US media and public, and make it difficult for the administration to
dismiss it outright. It is clear that the administration would view this as
yet another Israeli attempt to impede the talks and make it difficult to
formulate an agreement. Still, there is a chance that the Israeli demand
will be viewed by many as both justified and rational.

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