As Israelis, Iranians and many others in the region wait tensely to see whether President Trump decides to attack Iran, perhaps leading to a potential new round of Israeli-Iranian warfare, three Israelis and three Iranians met in Vienna for a panel and workshop on Thursday, February 12. Under the heading “De-Escalation, Peace and Freedom in the Middle East: Iranian and Israeli Voices in Dialogue”, the encounter was hosted by the Bruno Kreisky Foundation for International Dialogue.  This was a development and public launching of an Israeli-Iranian initiative begun a few months before the June 2025 12-day Israel-Iran War.

In the middle of that war, we formulated and released the following statement:

Iranians and Israelis call for ceasefire and diplomacy 

We, Iranians and Israelis, share grave concerns for the future of our countries and the region. Israel and Iran have been engaged in indirect conflict for decades; a conflict that puts the entire region in danger, and especially the people of these countries. Following the exchange of fire last year, the Israeli attacks starting Friday morning, and the Iranian attacks starting Friday night, the conflict has now entered us into a new phase. Already around 200 civilians have been killed in Iran and at least 23 in Israel. This is a reminder of the price paid by citizens in war. 

Iranians, Israelis and Palestinians deserve to live in safety and dignity. Attacks on civilians should be condemned everywhere. The respective governments of our country have helped plunge our people into this war that doesn’t represent our interests. Continued bloodshed won’t bring security for any of our nations. 

We call on both sides and the international community to take immediate steps toward ending the violence. They must find a way to bring all parties on the path of diplomacy. An immediate ceasefire should be the first step toward a broader diplomatic solution. 

We refuse to accept the inevitability of violent conflict as the only way forward between our nations, Israel and Iran, or their positioning as eternal arch-enemies. The endless and senseless wars of this region won’t benefit our people, all of whom have the right to live in peace and security. 

The statement was signed by 24 Israelis and Iranians. By the end of the week over 2,400 Iranians had signed the statement.

The panel and workshop in Vienna was a follow-up and public launching of the initiative. The Iranian participants in the panel were Touraj Atabaki, Emeritus Professor of Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia, Mehred Boroujerdi, Vice Provost and Dean for the College of Arts, Sciences at Missouri University of Science and Technology, and Merangiz Kar, a noted human rights lawyer and writer. The Israeli participants were Lior Sternfeld, professor of history, Jewish studies and social historian of the modern Middle East and author of “Iran: Life Itself: History, Politics, Culture, Traumas” in Hebrew, Susie Becher, Communications Director of the Policy Working Group, Steering Committee member of the Zulat activist think tank and Managing Editor of Palestine-Israel Journal and myself, Israeli Co-Editor of Palestine-Israel Journal.  The Iranians originally planned to include Iranians who live in Iran in the panel, but that clearly was not possible in the current circumstances.

The recording of the panel discussion (Recording: Bruno Kreisky Forum)

We Are Not Our Regimes

“We are not our regimes” was the heading of the invitation to the project.  All of the Iranian participants defined themselves as republicans (not the American variety, but believers in a republican form of government, what we would call democrats), who are opposed both to the Islamic Ayatollah regime and the monarchists represented by the late Shah’s son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. One of the younger Iranian academics who participated in the workshop advocated an alliance of the republicans with the monarchists to create a united opposition, but the veterans were opposed to the idea.

While the Israeli media is filled with calls for Trump to attack the Iranian regime, and Netanyahu is trying to convince him to do so thinking it will bolster his chances in the coming elections, all of the Iranian panelists were opposed to such an attack.  They say that change has to and will come from within.

The need for a Conference on Peace and Security in the Middle East

In the workshop, a number of speakers called for a regional approach to resolving the conflict.  I described the initiative by Iranian-born Germany-based Prof. Mohssen Massarat for a Conference on Peace and Security in the Middle East modeled on the 1973 European Conference for Peace and Security, focused on the quest for a Middle East Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction.  Two such conferences were held in 2011, one at the Protestant Academy in Bad Bol, Germany and one at SOAS (The School of Oriental and African Studies) in London.  Representatives from Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran participated in both of those conferences.  I suggested that it was time to revive that initiative.

The 2002 Arab Peace Initiative (API) declared that all 22 Arab states are ready to have peace and normal relations with Israel following the establishment of a Palestinians state alongside the State of Israel and a mutually agreed upon solution of the refugee problem. The API was confirmed by the 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, meeting that year n Teheran!  The Iranian government has also expressed its support for the API and has consistently said that it would accept any agreement with Israel accepted by the Palestinians.  This is a position totally supported by the Iranian republican opposition as well.

Unfortunately, no Israeli government has been ready to place the API on the government table for discussion, and Netanyahu preferred propping up Hamas with cash from Qatar to negotiations with the Mahmoud Abbas.

In addition to the formal side, the workshop and panel discussion, it was very good to get to know our Iranian counterparts around the breakfast tables in the hotel,  at a dinner in the home of an Iranian physicist who lives in a suburb of Vienna and at an incredible Greek restaurant a few blocks from the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue, which is based in what was Kreisky’s home.

We also had a number of discussions about follow-up ideas for future activity of the Iranian-Israeli Peace Forum, with the support of  the Kreisky Forum.We in Israel and Iran are the children of two ancient civilizations, and there is no logical reason for us to be enemies.  Unfortunately we both have regimes which prefer confrontation to cooperation.  At this stage, it’s up to us in civil society to help lay the groundwork for coexistence between our two peoples.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)