To understand Iran’s obsession with destroying Israel, one must look to the centuries-old sectarian rift within Islam between Shia and Sunni Muslims. Most Iranians are Shia Muslims, while worldwide about 90% of all Muslims are Sunni. Within this divide is the real basis for Iran’s relentless opposition to the Jewish state because, at its core, Iran’s obsession with Israel is about a Shia Muslim inferiority complex within Islam.

For centuries of Islamic history, Shia Muslims were persecuted minorities, politically sidelined and religiously denounced by Sunni rulers. This long-standing experience of marginalization fostered a deep sense of embattlement among Shias, and they developed what can be described as a religious and psychological inferiority complex.

For the Islamist movement, the very existence of an independent Jewish state called Israel is a theological and historic impossibility. In Islam’s natural social order for 1,200 years, Jews lived as protected tributaries (dhimmi) in an inferior status under the leadership of Islamic society, due to their refusal to accept Islam. For Islamists, inferior Jews cannot be rulers in a sovereign state, so Israel is unacceptable in any size or circumstance.

Iran’s unrelenting hostility toward Israel is best understood as a deeply rooted expression of the centuries old Shia religious identity crisis within Islam. By adopting the mantle of the most uncompromising Islamist opponent of the Jewish state, Iran is asserting Islamic authenticity for Shia Islam throughout the Islamic world. This allows the Iranian Shia regime to appeal emotionally to the global majority Sunni Muslims, and demand religious credibility and respect from Sunni powers. By positioning Shia identity as one of heroic resistance to Jewish statehood Iran’s anti-Zionism is nothing less than a cry for legitimacy.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/07/why-iran-is-obsessed-destroying-israel-centuries-old/