Ayatollah Ali Khamenei just explained why Israel takes a hardline on Iran

Now, while most of Khamenei’s Twitter statements, and those of his underlings, are the intellectual equivalent of this …

… The above tweet is actually very important in explaining why Israeli security strategy towards Iran is so reliably hardline.

Because by stating that “Palestine is the river to the sea and Al Quds is undoubtedly its capital,” Khamenei is actually saying that all of Jerusalem and all Israeli territory from the West Bank to the Mediterranean Sea is actually Palestinian territory. But more than that, Khamenei is highlighting his regime’s absolute determination to see Israel eradicated.

While it’s true that some of the Palestinian liberation narrative advances a non-violence narrative (think Swedish singer Maher Zain’s “Palestine will be free”), Iran’s strategy towards effecting its Palestinian agenda is situated firmly in violence and destruction. And this narrative matters because when anti-Israel movements like the boycott and divestment syndicate pretend they are acting in pursuit of a peaceful pressure campaign, they are actually playing straight into the hands of Iranian aggression.

Yet eradicating Israel isn’t just a policy objective for Iran, it’s an existential demand of the theocracy. Put simply, Iran believes that Israel’s existence is incompatible both with its warped notion of Islamic emancipation and the purity of Islamic holy sites in Israel. It is for these reasons that the Israeli government is so reluctant to believe Iran will undergo some kind of moderating enlightenment as a result of the nuclear agreement.

Still, for America, Khamenei’s words are also relevant for another reason: they sit aside his escalating threats against the U.S.

In the coming weeks and months, Israel and the U.S. will have to be on particularly high alert for acts of Iranian terrorism.