Scott Johnson at Powerlineblog.com posted an excerpt of Benjamin Natanyahu’s speech at the UN last week.  The excerpt is posted Here; and describes the long history of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, Israel. He continues by describing the 2500 year history of Persian friendship toward the Jewish people:

Some 2500 years ago, the great Persian King Cyrus ended the Babylonian exile of the Jewish people. He issued a famous edict in which he proclaimed the right of the Jews to return to the Land of Israel and rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. That’s a Persian decree, and thus began a historic friendship between the Jews and the Persians that lasted until modern times.

He goes on to describe the soured and dangerous relationship with the radical Islamists in Teheran starting in 1979: 

But in 1979, a radical regime in Tehran tried to stamp out that friendship. As it was busy crushing the Iranian people’s hopes for democracy, it also led wild chants of “Death to the Jews!” Now, since that time, Presidents of Iran have come and gone. Some presidents were considered moderates, others hardliners. But they’ve all served that same unforgiving creed, that same unforgetting regime – that creed that is espoused and enforced by the real power in Iran, the dictator known in Iran as the Supreme Leader, first Ayatollah Khomeini and now Ayatollah Khamenei. President Rouhani, like the presidents who came before him is a loyal servant of the regime. He was one of only six candidates the regime permitted to run for office. Nearly 700 other candidates were rejected.

This article, which contains links to Rouhani’s and Obama’s speeches as well, is an important read.