Some analysts agree. Many also say that despite President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's inflammatory rhetoric against Israel, Iran has no plans to attack its nemesis. Trita Parsi, a Middle East specialist at The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, says that during the Cold War, Iran and Israel actually cooperated on many security issues. With a threat from the Soviet Union gone, the Iran-Israel relationship changed.
?Suddenly, Iran and Israel after the Cold War found themselves being the two most powerful states in the region. And rather than potential security partners, they started to view each other as rivals. In late 1992, prior to Iran's sponsorship of anti-Israeli terror, Israel made a sudden U-turn and started to depict Iran as a global and existential threat,? says Parsi.