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Comment by ranguna | Hacker News Reader

Sources other than project flower?

When I first learned that Iran-Israel used to have friendly relations for decades, I was shocked. Genuinely surprised. Here's the relevant part of the wiki [0]:

After the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948, Israel and Iran maintained close ties. Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel as a sovereign state after Turkey. Israel viewed Iran as a natural ally as a non-Arab power on the edge of the Arab world, in accordance with David Ben Gurion's concept of an alliance of the periphery. Israel had a permanent delegation in Tehran which served as a de facto embassy, before Ambassadors were exchanged in the late 1970s.

After the Six-Day War, Iran supplied Israel with a significant portion of its oil needs and Iranian oil was shipped to European markets via the joint Israeli-Iranian Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline. Trade between the countries was brisk, with Israeli construction firms and engineers active in Iran. El Al, the Israeli national airline, operated direct flights between Tel Aviv and Tehran. Iranian-Israeli military links and projects were kept secret, but they are believed to have been wide-ranging, for example the joint military project Project Flower (1977–79), an Iranian-Israeli attempt to develop a new missile.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Israel_relations

You know that the Iran of then is almost completely unrelated to the Iran of now culturally, politically and even religiously due to... err... “foreign intervention”, right?

Obviously. The point I'm addressing is that Iran does not have to maintain hostile relations towards Israel. The two countries had friendly relations for decades prior. Iranians themselves also want to end hostilities with Israel. Polling of Iranians citizens show 69% of people believe the "Islamic Republic should stop calling for the destruction of Israel" [0].

The tens of billions of dollars Iran invests into fighting Israel are (in my opinion) much better spent investing into developing the Iranian people and economy. Spending billions of dollars funding proxy wars, fighting a pointless forever war against Israel, pursuing nuclear weapons, and firing drones and missiles at your neighbors is a foolish foreign policy. Iran is asking for trouble.

If Iran had a different foreign policy, this current conflict would never have happened. Iran's situation was entirely avoidable.

[0] https://gamaan.org/2025/11/05/12-day-war-survey-english/

> If Iran had a different foreign policy

That's my point. Iran did, and it did not work out for them so why would they try again?

> Polling of Iranians citizens show 69% of people

67% of people believe Trump is doing a bad job; 56% believe the US shouldn't be in this war; 63% believe the US should stop supporting Israel. They're all roughly the same % as your quote, does that mean the US should change foreign policy?

> Iran's situation was entirely avoidable

Sure, by not dropping bombs on them while negotiation with them?

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