Nightmare of Jerusalem Part – Iran’s Long Complicated Relationship with Israel

Nightmare of Jerusalem Parts I and II

Press TV (2025)

Film Review

Nightmare of Jerusalem is an intriguing 8-part series about Iran’s long and complicated relationship with Israel. The first three episodes relate specifically to Iran’s April 13 missile attack on Israel, in retaliation for their April 1 bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus. The last five episodes relate to Israel’s complex relationship with Shah Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi; the Iranian role in the Palestinian resistance and the birth of Hezbollah in Lebanon; the systematic efforts by the Mossad and the CIA to weaken the Islamic Republic of Iran via funding and arming Kurdish rebels, funding the Iran-Iraq War and numerous attempts to instigate an Iranian color revolution via the Green Movement (aka the Green Wave of Iran, aka the Persian Spring); and finally the Irangate scandal, in which the Reagan administration secretly sold weapons to Iran weapons via Israeli intermediaries.

Part I

Part I provides background on the development of Iran’s missile systems and Israel’s US-supplied missile defense system. In considering a target 2,000 km beyond their border, Iran’s rocket scientists also have to allow for the major anti-missile system the US has installed in Iraq* and Turkey and the sea-based anti-missile systems on US and UK naval vessels in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. They also risk the possibility that the UAE, Saudi Arabia or Yemen could shoot their missiles down as the three Arab countries have supplied Israel a long route for food and other essential supplies now that the Houthis have effectively blockaded their ports.

*After Trump ordered the 2020 drone strike assassination of Iranian general Suleimani, Iran retaliated with a missile attack on US bases in Iraq. This led the US to significantly increase its Iraqi anti-missile defenses in Iraq.

Part II

Part II is an extremely detailed discussion of the large inventory of rockets in Iran’s missile program, starting with their Scud missiles, which Iran reverse engineered from the Scuds Saddam Hussein fired at them during the Iran-Iraq war. Some of their more advanced missiles include hypersonic missiles (developed with Russian assistance), lightweight carbon fiber missiles, cruise missiles (which avoid detection by flying at low altitude), and missiles that avoid radar detection by using solid fuel, making U-turns and carrying detachable hard-to-detect warheads.