The relationship between Israel and Iran is rooted in our collective memories.

It stretches back more than 2,500 years, to when Cyrus of Persia freed the Jews from our Babylonian exile. It was the same Cyrus the Great who allowed us to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. And, despite Cyrus not being Jewish, our prophet Isaiah called him “the anointed one” in the old testament, where King Cyrus is also mentioned by name – in the books of Daniel and Ezra. That’s a rare honor for a non-Jew. This connection between Jews and Persians endured through the centuries. Indeed, it flourished under Mohammad Reza Shah in the 1970s—which was when I lived as a child with my family in Tehran. This shared past between Persians and Jews is etched into my consciousness and that of many Israelis and Iranians. It will outlast the predations of the Ayatollahs and their Islamic Revolution of 1979. I pray for the day when Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis – all proxies of the Ayatollahs—will become mere footnotes to history.

Thank you Emily Shrader for your talk.

Thank you Reza Pahlavi– son of Mohammad Reza and Farah Diba for your efforts. See below a photograph of me and my sister taken around 1972 in front of the magnificent Shah Mosque in Isfahan – which dates back to the Safavid era. (Bear in mind, though, that King Cyrus predates that mosque by more than 2,000 years.)

I originally posted this to X here:

The relationship between Israel and Iran is rooted in our collective memories. It stretches back more than 2,500 years, to when Cyrus of Persia freed the Jews from our Babylonian exile. It was the same Cyrus the Great who allowed us to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.

And,… https://t.co/2kfYTg50vQ pic.twitter.com/iqJOCyOTuX

— Guy Spier 🎗️🇮🇱 🇺🇦 (@GSpier) May 27, 2025