On February 24, Professor Menashri will give a public talk on “Iran, the US, and the Changing Middle East”.

by Jessica Behmanesh

This past summer’s nuclear accord between Iran and the United States, France, China, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom spurred a multitude of opinions among members of the UCLA community. Some see the deal as a beacon of hope for eventual peace; some completely condemn it as a sign of legitimizing the Islamic Republic and ignoring the country’s human rights violations. Other individuals believe that they simply do not know enough about the agreements or Iranian affairs in general to have a formal opinion on the matter.

Fortunately for students, faculty, staff and the broader community, the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies is hosting eminent Iran scholar, David Menashri, as the Israel Institute Visiting Professor for Winter and Spring quarters. Professor Menashri comes to UCLA from Israel, where he co-founded the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University (TAU), chaired TAU’s Department of Middle Eastern and African History, and served as President of the College of Law and Business in Ramat Gan, Israel. Menashri has also served as a visiting professor at numerous other American institutions, including the University of Chicago, Yale and Princeton, as well as at universities around the world.

This quarter, Menashri is teaching a course on Iran called “Iran in the Middle East: Between Doctrine and Interests.” This comprehensive class examines the causes and outcomes of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and Iranian domestic politics, and their effect on the formation of national policies, relations with the West, among other topics. Next quarter, he will teach a course called, “Iran and Israel (1948-2015): From Allies to Adversaries.”

For UCLA community members who would like to learn more, Menashri will be lecturing and leading a discussion on Tuesday, February 9, entitled “Iran, the United States, and the Changing Middle East.” The event, taking place at UCLA Law School at 4:30 PM in room 1447, is open to all students, faculty, and staff. In his talk, Professor Menashri will draw connections between Iranian internal politics and its effect on the way Iran relates to countries both in the Middle East and the West.

For Menashri, Iran’s sudden decision to negotiate, or even acknowledge, Western countries such as the United States and France, can be seen as a major indication of change in Iranian domestic policy. Not so long ago, champions of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 attacked the West and blamed her for their troubles. This idea of finding fault with Western influence had been gaining support in Iran since at least 1962, when Iranian intellectual Jalal Al-e Ahmad popularized the term “Gharbzadegi,” meaning “Westoxification,” in his book of the same name (published clandestinely). Gharbzadeghi implied that the Iranian culture and spirit at the time had been overshadowed by the secular culture of the Western world. By comparing the West’s influence on the Middle East to a plague, Ahmad made clear that Iranians were not pleased to comply or exchange thoughts with the West.

More recently, when Iranian president Hassan Rouhani extended a hand in friendship to the president of China, Xi Jinping, the Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stated that healthy relationships with countries like China are necessary because Iran “has never trusted the West.” Khamenei’s statement came six months after the nuclear agreements were reached. One wonders why Iran would take part in a dialogue and sign an accord with a region her Supreme Leader claims not to trust. Perhaps the two-sided perception of the Western world lies in multi-faceted political opinions and perspectives within the Iranian government today.

To learn more about the current situation between Iran, the West, and the Middle East, attend Professor Menashri’s lecture and discussion on Wednesday, February 24 at 4:30 p.m. For more information and RSVP, visit www.international.ucla.edu/israel/event/11660

A version on this article appeared in Ha’am, UCLA’s Jewish Newsmagazine, online edition, January 27, 2016