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Not everyone in Tehran shares such sentiments and the issue of Israel has been subjected to the exigencies of factional politics, like so many other (foreign policy) issues. Unfortunately, some Iran experts in the West have made a serious error of speaking of a "strategic alliance" between Israel and Iran during the Iran-Iraq War.

Such analyses take for alliance what was in fact a passing moment of policy synergy culminating in Iran taking advantage of Israel's fear of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for purely defensive purposes. In fact, the facility with which the US during the Ronald Reagan administration expelled the Israeli go-betweens in the Iran arms transactions is alone a reminder of the ad hoc, transient and extremely limited nature of Iran-Israel relations during the Iran-Iraq war, dictated by the survival prerogatives of both governments. [2]

Still, irrespective of the fact that Israel consistently ranks low in the net of foreign policy priorities of Iran, preoccupied with multiple crises beyond its borders, the Israeli government has escalated its rhetoric against Iran, by depicting Tehran as a mortal enemy out to destroy Israel.