Since it rose to power in 1979, the Islamic Republic has constituted one of the foremost security challenges for both the United States and Israel. In addition to Iran’s nuclear program, one of the top areas of concern has been Iran’s support for non-state actors across the Middle East, and especially those stationed along Israel’s borders, namely, Hezbollah and Hamas. While much has been made of Iran’s opposition to Israel and the roles of its support for such groups in manifesting that opposition, much less attention has been given to how Iranian leaders actually understand their strategic interests vis-à-vis Israel-Palestine and how they conceptualize the reasons behind their antagonistic stance. This paper, which is based on an in-progress book project, adds that missing piece by analyzing how Iranian leaders view the bases of their positions on Israel-Palestine. It focuses particularly on the assessments of Israeli policies produced by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the numerous publications and statements it has released on those subjects. Paying close attention to the first decade following the 1979 revolution, the paper uncovers the considerations that gave rise to the shift in Iran’s position on Israel-Palestine that accompanied the establishment of the new regime. It shows that even in this early period IRGC and other Iranian leaders based their opposition to Israel not on Islamic-revolutionary ideology but on their rejection of colonialism and Western intervention in the Middle East, which formed an important part of Iran’s efforts to define its own place in the world. Particularly important is the view that the Israeli occupation of Palestine represents and should be recognized as a lasting and negative vestige of Euro-American domination of the region. Accordingly, the paper demonstrates that Iran’s opposition to Israel, while often overstated, is in fact a significant component of its foreign policy, but one that can only be understood in terms of other, more important aspects of its strategic outlook. In other words, the paper argues that Iran’s opposition to Israel is a product of the particular circumstances and conditions that have shaped Iran’s post-revolutionary history and its determination to control its role in international affairs.