A neglected factor is that Iran's current regime has repeatedly stated that it intends to wipe Israel out.

Well, it has said that it looks forward to a time when there won't be a country called Israel on the map of the region. There isn't a country called the Soviet Union or Czecholovakia either, and there won't be one called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland either in a few years, if the Scots vote for independance. And while South Africa kept the same name, it's a very different country from apartheid days.

Names on maps aren't really the issue - it's what those names represent.