The Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is a Holocaust denier who passionately hates Israel. He's described "Israel as a cancerous tumor" that must be removed, and has promised support to all groups that wish to harm Israel. What fuels Khamenei's hate toward Israel?
Ali Khamenei was born in 1939 to a religious family in the city of Mashhad. Jewish hatred was rife among Iran's Shia clerics and many of their religious supporters among the Iranian public. Since Iran became a Shia country in 1502, the clerical class made life extremely difficult for Iran's Jews. Mashhad has a long history of antisemitism. In the 19th century, Mashhad's Jewish community was coerced to convert to Islam. Many Mashhadi Jews secretly maintained their Jewish identity. Khamenei's family background and Mashhad’s history helped form his antisemitic views.
The writings of Seyyed Qutb, who was an Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader, greatly influenced Khamenei during his youth. Qutb was a militant Muslim cleric who hated Jews and Israel. Khamenei claims to have translated Qutb’s books.
Khamenei sees himself as an anti-imperialist revolutionary. He views the US as the main imperialist power in the Middle East and Israel as its agent. To push out the US from the region, Khamenei believes that Israel should be forever confronted.
Khamenei has a so-called PR method to end Israel’s existence by calling for the Palestinian's right of return. Khamenei’s "Elimination of Israel" plan does not allow Israelis to vote in the proposed referendum.
The Khamenei regime sees peace with the US as an existential danger to its survival. It believes that the process of the disintegration of the Soviet Union began the moment the last leader of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev decided to stop the anti-US character and improve diplomatic relations instead. Iranian conservatives believe that policy change provided the US with an opportunity to “infiltrate” the minds of Soviet politicians and experts with ideas like democracy, the rule of law, and a free and open market. Consequently, the targeted Soviets, influenced by Western ideas, decided to take the USSR apart, according to Hujjatolislam Ali Saidi, Khamenei's representative to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Khamenei doesn't want Western ideas to to reach Iran and to ensure it doesn't happen, one way is to prevent Iran from having diplomatic relations with the US by supporting anti-Israel policies. Khamenei knows how sensitive the US is with regard to Israel’s security.
A majority of Iran's population is against Khamenei's regime, making the regime more dependent on approximately 20% of the population who still support it. Hatred toward Israel lets Khamenei justify the notable budget allocations to certain programs and industries, including Iran's various weapon manufacturing industries, and financial and military programs for Iran's regional militias. Khamenei's supporters benefit handsomely from them.
Dr. Meir Javedanfar is an Iranian-Israeli lecturer, author, and commentator. He teaches various Iran-related courses at Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel.
His X handle @Meirja.