'Israel Loves Iran' initiative takes off on Facebook

An online call for peace initiated by an Israeli couple has managed to achieve the support of 1,000 Israelis and Iranians. And it all began with two posters.

Ronny Edry and his wife Michal Tamir, together with "Pushpin Mehina", a small preparatory school for graphic design students, uploaded posters to Facebook depicting images of themselves with their children alongside the words, "Iranians, we will never bomb your country, we Love you."

Attached to each poster was 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 no harm."

"I'm not an official representative of my country. I m [sic] 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."


In a conversation with Haaretz, Edry explained that he hoped his initiative would reach the Iranian citizens, but admitted that he never believed it would gain so much momentum. "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."

"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?'"

At first, the posters were castigated, said Edry. "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," and numerous people asked to join the initiative.

It was not long before reactions from Iranians began trickling through. "I never imagined that within 48 hours I would be speaking to the other side," said Edry, who explained that most of the Iranians' messages had been coming through in private, but that there had been some who invited him to be their Facebook friend.

In a conversation that took place on Saturday evening, after a full day spent in front of the computer chatting to Israelis and Iranians, Edry was buzzing with excitement. "Something insane is going on here," said Edry. "I was just having a conversation with a few Iranians, trying to convince them to send me photos of themselves, and they told me that we [Israelis] might be able to publish photos, but they risk going to jail over such a thing." In the meanwhile, they conversed via private messages, with their identities concealed.

However, by Sunday morning, Edry began receiving the first signs of reactions from the other side.

"We also love you. Your words are reaching us despite the censorship," wrote one Facebook user from Iran. "The Iranian people, apart from the regime, do not hold a grudge nor animosity against anyone, especially not the Israelis… We never saw Israelis as our enemies. As such, the regime cannot gain public support for war."

"The hatred was invented by the propaganda of the regime, which will die soon", continued the Iranian Facebook user. "The ayatollah will die soon. [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad will disappear. He is nothing more than an opportunist, and more than anything – an idiot. Everyone hates him. We love you, love, peace. And thanks for your message."

By Sunday afternoon, faceless posters prepared by Iranians, sharing a similar message of thanks and love, were posted onto the Pushpin Mehina Facebook page and the "Israel Loves Iran" blog.

Source: Haaretz

Obama erkent nucleaire rechten Iran

Pesident Barack Obama heeft in een brief aan het Iraanse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken erkend dat Teheran het recht heeft om nucleaire technologieën te ontwikkelen.

De Zwitserse ambassadeur in Teheran liet weten dat de VS de nucleaire rechten van Iran hebben erkend, aldus vicevoorzitter van de Iraanse parlementscommissie voor buitenlands beleid en nationale veiligheid Hossein Ebrahimi in een tv-interview met persbureau Fars.

Woordvoerder van het Iraanse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken Ramin Mehmanparast bevestigde op 15 januari jongstleden dat de Amerikaanse president Obama zijn boodschap had overgebracht aan Iran middels de Amerikaanse VN-ambassadeur Susan Rice, de Zwitserse ambassadeur in Teheran Livia Leu Agosti en de Iraakse president Jalal Talabani.

Derde brief

De Zwitserse gezant voegde toe dat Obama tegen de sancties is die zijn opgelegd aan de Iraanse centrale bank, maar dat hij geen stappen kon ondernemen omdat het Amerikaanse Congres unaniem voor de sancties stemde.

Het is de derde brief die Obama aan Iraanse regeringsfunctionarissen stuurde waarin hij besprekingen tussen Iran en de VS voorstelt. De Amerikaanse president stuurde eerder twee brieven aan leider van de Islamitische Revolutionaire Raad grootayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Samenwerken

Directeur-generaal van het Internationaal Atoomenergie Agentschap (IAEA) Yukiya Amano zei constructief te willen samenwerken met Iran. “Mijn voornaamste prioriteit in 2012 is mensen te laten inzien dat het kernprogramma van Iran enkel wordt gebruikt voor vreedzame doeleinden,” legde Amano uit.

Hij voegde toe dat Iran eind deze maand zal worden bezocht door een delegatie van het IAEA onder leiding van onderdirecteur-generaal van het Internationaal Atoomagentschap Herman Nackaerts. De Iraanse IAEA-ambassadeur Ali Asghar Soltanieh noemde het een teken van transparantie van het Iraanse kernprogramma en de samenwerking tussen Teheran en het IAEA.

Voorkomen

De Franse president Nicolas Sarkozy heeft gewaarschuwd tegen een militaire aanval op Iran. “Militair ingrijpen lost het probleem niet op, maar zou enkel leiden tot chaos en oorlog in het Midden-Oosten en misschien wel de wereld,” aldus het Franse staatshoofd tijdens zijn nieuwjaarstoespraak in Parijs.

Sarkozy benadrukte dat Frankrijk ‘alles zal doen’ om militaire interventie in Iran te voorkomen. De Franse president Nicolas Sarkozy, IAEA-topman Yukiya Amano en de Amerikaanse minister-president Barack Obama scharen zich daarmee achter de Russische premier Vladimir Poetin en de Chinese minister-president Wen Jiabao.

Bronnen: Presstv.ir (1), (2), (3) en (4)

Vertaling: Niburu