Haggai Ram demonstrates that the conflict between Israel and Iran may not be as essential and polarized as common knowledge assumes. He explores the connection between domestic anxieties about the nature of the Jewish state as well as exaggerated and displaced strategic concerns in the era of the "war on terrorism."

"Boldly challenges conventional assumptions about Iran and works to debunk Israeli and Western myths" - Yehouda Shenhav, Tel Aviv University

"... the most insightful book about the current-day Israel and the social psychology of its own fearful fantasies... an indispensable, piece of scholarship for anyone interested in the current tug-of-war between the Islamic Republic and the Jewish state." - Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University, author of Iran: a People Interrupted