Is it a Mossad plot, lol: Israeli citizens’ online initiative expresses love for Iran

With the aim of proving that they are different from their politicians, a small group of Israelis has decided to reach out to the Iranian people online with the provocative message, “Israel loves Iran,” an Israeli newspaper reported Monday.

According to Haaretz, the initiative on the part of Ronny Edry and his wife Michal Tamir, along with a group of graphic design students from the school Pushpin Mehina, started on Facebook with an image of the couple and their children along with the words, "Iranians, we will never bomb your country, we [heart] you."

Attached to each image is the caption, "To the Iranian people, To all the fathers, mothers, children, brothers and sisters, For there to be a war between us, first we must be afraid of each other, we must hate. I'm not afraid of you, I don't hate you. I don't even know you. No Iranian ever did me [any] harm."

To their surprise, the page has gotten a warm reception from over a thousand people – including Iranians who are strongly against the idea of Israel bombing Iran.

Over the past several months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran. Earlier this month, he told US President Barack Obama that Israel has the right to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities without US support, the UK’s Independent reported.

"I'm not an official representative of my country. I’m a father and a teacher," wrote Edry, adding that he wishes to send a message on behalf of his neighbors, family, students and friends. "[W]e love you. We mean you no harm", he wrote. "On the contrary, we want to meet, have some coffee and talk about sports."

Edry told Haaretz that he hoped his initiative would reach Iranian citizens, with whom he would otherwise have no other way of communicating.

"On my Facebook page I have left-wing friends who always speak of these things; they all agree with me. Every so often a right-winger answers me saying what we're on about is rubbish, but I've never spoken to an Iranian."

He wants to emphasize that he does not represent the politicians who speak about bombing Iran.

"I thought that when you're constantly surrounded by talk of threats and war, you are so stressed and afraid that you crawl into a sort of shell and think to yourself how lucky we are to also have bombs and how lucky we are that we'll clean them out first," he said. "So I thought, 'Why not try to reach the other side; to bypass the generals and see if they [Iranians] really hate me?'"

But he acknowledges that getting his message out has been easier said than done.

"After the first poster people started criticizing me, saying I'm an idiot, that I’m naïve. 'Why are you telling them you love them? Why are you giving up before the war has even started?'" But very quickly the posters became a hit: the first image gained hundreds of "Likes" and "Shares.”

By Sunday, Iranians had put up several posters, images and messages of love and gratitude on the Pushpin Mehina Facebook page as well as the "Israel Loves Iran" blog.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Mar-19/167179-israeli-citizens-online-initiative-expresses-love-for-iran.ashx

Nice idea though...

Is it a Mossad plot, lol: Israeli citizens’ online initiative expresses love for Iran

Is it a Mossad plot, lol: Israeli citizens’ online initiative expresses love for Iran

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