Since its establishment in 1979, Iran’s Islamic Revolution regime has placed the elimination of Israel – which it terms “the little satan” and a “cancerous growth” that must be removed – at the center of its ideology, articulating this objective both openly and emphatically. In order to achieve this goal the regime acts in several arenas and on various levels, including the media-propaganda level, the military and political-diplomatic levels, and even the legal level, using various players from among its array of proxies.

On the military level in the Middle East, Iran acts through its resistance axis, which comprises Hizbullah in Lebanon; the Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) organizations in the Palestinian territories; Shi’ite militias, such as the Popular Mobilization Units, in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthis in Yemen.[1]

Iran does not hide its desire to blacken Israel’s image in the political arena and in public opinion. To this end it promotes in public discourse the claim that Israel is an alien corn that was planted in the region to oppress the Palestinians and that it is a violent, occupying colonial force that subjects the Palestinians to an apartheid regime. For example, on January 1, 2024, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told his British counterpart David Cameron in a phone conversation that “Iran regards Hamas as a resistance movement [fighting] occupation and apartheid, just like the movement that fought apartheid in South Africa for many years.”[2]