Agreed on that topic, but then again, the majority of his saber-rattling statements happened a few years ago, or trying to surf on the muslim reaction of Danish cartoons. He would be trying to divert the attention from the bad economic situation his country has been through (because of low oil price) by trying to rouse nationalism in his voters.
Iranian nationalism is directed against the Arabs, not in any way or form against Israel or the west.
The Iranians think of themselves as one of the advanced nations, not one of the anti-western newcomers.
The Danish cartoons were a major issue in Sunni countries, because pictures of Muhammed (and images in general) are a problem for Sunni extremists. Shia Islam has little problem with pictures as such and the average Iranian wouldn't see a Muhammed cartoon as such a major issue like a Sunni would.
No, I don't. If anything, I doubt that the majority of Iranians want direct antagonism against Israelis except maybe when it comes to the fate of the palestinians. Some of their political elites might be using an antagonist position to Israel as a platform to try to depict themselves as "good muslim" (as many might have the misguided impression that being a good muslim means opposing Israel).
The average Iranian doesn't care about the fate of some Arabs. For them Arabs are the people who killed two million Iranians during Saddam's attempted invasion.
The entire anti-Israel (and anti-Jewish) position of the Iranian regime is due to their theology. They have remade Islam, specifically Shia Islam, into a monster. And part of that reform means having to get rid if a lot of Islamic history which directly contradicts their interpretation. That is a problem Shia Islam has had for over a thousand years.
The only thing the Quran says about Israel (the people) is what the Hebrew Bible says: that G-d commanded them, via prophet Moses, to live in the holy land and not run away. (The Quran says a few other things about Jews in general but only this one thing about the holy land, unless you count the description of the location of Abraham's other son's place of worship, which is also in Israel.)
In order for the reformed "Islam" of the Iranian regime to make sense, the memory of parts of the Quran must go, specifically all parts that talk about the relationship between Mecca and Jerusalem and between Muhammed and his family (including Abraham and hence Moses and ultimately the Hashemite clan). The problem is that Shia Islam claims that the Umma (all Muslims) must be ruled by the family of Muhammed (the Hashemites). And that's quite a big problem for the mullahs to explain away.
If they don't manage to explain it away, it would mean that the current government of Jordan (the Hashemite clan, who are pro-western and descendants of Muhammed's familt) has a legitimate claim to command the Muslim world. This particular problem has often led to wars between Sunnis and Shiites in the past. Shia Muslims refer to it as the betrayal of the Hashemites when the Hashemites supported orthodox (Sunni) Islam rather than the Shiites.
Israel is the most visible symbol of the part of the Quran the mullahs need to suppress. If Israel keeps surviving, it means that the Quran's predition that there will only be two exiles is true. And if any part of the Quran is visibly true, people will focus on it. And this means people would focus on Abraham's family and that would call the Iranian regime's great bluff.
Also, a "real" moderate might still be somewhat opposed to Israel based on the mistreatment of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, which is a valid position.
You'd be surprised how little sympathy non-Arabs in the middle east have for Arabs who attack someone and then get "mistreated" in the attempt.
Don't forget that most non-Arab peoples, especially the Iranians, have also been attacked by Arab terrorists and armies.
The "Palestinians", Saddam's allies, for the Iranians are the same Arab nationalists who murdered two million Iranians and tens of thousands of Kurds (who are also of Iranian stock) in the 1980s and earlier. They have very little sympathy for them.
Don't confuse western sympathies for Arab imperialism with the middle east. Even your average Arab has less sympathy for the "Palestinians" then most people think, and those in the middle east who are not Arabs usually tend to be indifferent about the Arabs' wars or openly hostile to the Arab side for their own reasons.
In my street lives in Arab Iraqi butcher who knows both my religion and my sympathies for Israel. And his major problem with me is my bad pronunciation of Arabic words. Non-middle-easterners in Europe are usually less sympathetic to the entire Jew-Israeli thing.
Such a "real moderate" would be even more opposed to the Arab side based on the mistreatment of fellow Muslims in western Sudan and, specifically and here most of all relevant, Iranians and Iraqi Shiites during the 1980s.
