Vortex

The enmity between Iran and Israel today seems so entrenched that it is difficult to imagine it was ever otherwise. Yet as Arash Azizi shows, in the years following the Second World War, these two nations, one Persian, one Jewish, found common cause as outsiders in an Arab-dominated region. Approaching each other with curiosity and pragmatism, Iran and Israel built a partnership that profoundly shaped both countries, from the rhythms of everyday life to the highest levels of statecraft. But over the next three decades, revolutionary passions and political ambitions proved stronger than the bond itself, giving rise to one of the most bitter rivalries of our time, one that drew in nation after nation until it engulfed the wider region. Drawing on untapped Iranian and Israeli sources, Azizi reconstructs this dramatic transformation across eight decades, from the first tentative gestures of friendship to the decades of proxy battles to the outbreaks of open warfare that now dominate the headlines. Vortex is essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of the dynamics that threaten to tear apart the modern Middle East—and the wider world with it.