The undeclared conflict between Iran, Israel and the United States has run since 1979, when the Islamic Revolution toppled the Shah, and this DW film traces how it started. The opening chapter centers on Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which brought it face to face with a new Iranian-backed Shiite militia, Hezbollah, and set the pattern for four decades of proxy fighting. Archival footage from Tehran, Beirut, Washington and Jerusalem is paired with interviews from former officials and analysts in all four capitals, reconstructing assassinations, bombings and attacks that neither side has ever officially claimed. The film asks why no real dialogue has ever taken place between Iran and Israel despite both being dominant regional powers, and it lays out the American interests that keep pulling Washington into the standoff. Rather than settling on villains, it builds a timeline of escalation, from Hezbollah's founding through the covert operations of recent years, leaving the question of whether this shadow war could turn into open confrontation for its second part to continue.