We love Iran

March 19, 2012 - 10:33 PM by · 4 Comments
Filed under: Blogging, coexistence, design, education, General, Israeliness, Life, News, Politics, War 

Ah, those crazy art students. Wouldn’tcha know it, but it took a couple of graphic designers to reach the Iranian public — through the web and Facebook – and let them know that we’re really just people, and not all that interested in a major war. The couple, Ronny Edry and his wife, Michal Tamir, created several simple, graphic posters depicting regular Israelis and the words, “Iranians We Will Never Bomb Your Country,” and within hours, began receiving hundreds of responses from Israelis and then Iranians.

On their Facebook page, people are sharing music links — Stevie Wonder’s We Can Work It Out — messages about their appreciation for the campaign, wishes for a happy Iranian new year and Iranian versions of the Israeli poster. If you were just reading this site, you’d think there’s no chance for a nuclear war.

Read this comment:

Just in from Iran:

miscommunication is a funny thing . when i saw the original blog and first comment was why so cocky why u say u dont bomb us like u want to but u dont and few hours later i saw one israeli said why they dont said it back that we dont bomb u either. u see? something its good thing in Your country and its bad thing in mine . because we dont know each other. they never let us to know each other. they afraid we became united and realize we got played and they cant control us any more (they are : government of both countries ) . i dont know about u guys but here they keep saying israel is bad . israel its evil and all that crap and its going into your subconscious and u start believe a lie that deep down u know thats not true at least not all of them but u know what, when i see pictures specially family ones its like i know u guys and i never met any of u .any one with a little bit knowledge knows innocent people gonna get kill in wars .people who dont deserve it and people who do deserve it they going to sit in their office and write a apology note . love and respect to every irani or israeli or american or what ever countries that say no to war . some people said this is start of a friendship between two countries but i say (base on two countries history ) this is reunion of brothers and sisters who lost each other over time and finally find each other .

B. Tehran – IRAN

It helps to have a ‘place’ to go where you can regain a sense of sanity about people and war and the general desire to vote for peace rather than warfare. The question is whether pink and green posters can make any kind of difference in this global disaster.

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Dreaming of Bahrain

March 1, 2011 - 9:40 PM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Life, Travel 

We have just over a month to go until we leave for our long-planned trek to Nepal to celebrate my 50th birthday and our youngest son’s bar mitzvah. There’s only one problem standing in our way: Bahrain.

The cheapest way to get to Asia for Israelis is via the Gulf – the price can be as low as $600 round trip from Amman vs. double that if you leave from Israel. Not wanting to be freiers and over-spend, we booked a Gulf Air flight from Jordan to Kathmandu via Bahrain. Our itinerary has an 11-hour layover, so we figured we leave the airport and take in the sights of Manama, the tiny country’s only real city.

And then, a few weeks ago, following the riots in Tunisia and Egypt, Bahrain erupted. Protesters took to the streets, occupying Pearl Square, and the government fought back, killing several and wounding many more.

That kind of scuttled our plans tour the capital.

Notice Iran smack dab in the middle

It didn’t make it any better that, in 2009, a commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards called Bahrain the Islamic Republic’s “14th province.” Not to mention that Gulf Air flies over Iran on its way to and from Kathmandu. I wonder what would happen if our plane, with its Israeli contingent on board, had to make an unexpected landing in Tehran?

Now, Bahrain has since calmed down, and there’s no knowing what will be by the time we leave. But if Egypt is any clue, if fighting flares up again, even flights could be suspended.

Given the dicey situation – and not a small amount of added stress while planning not only a trip, but an entire bar mitzvah – I quickly went online to find an alternate route. Everything cost an arm and a leg.

“We can’t afford it,” I complained to my wife.

“What’s more important – money or our safety?” she shot back. That’s a hard one to argue with.

Now, of course, canceling a flight has penalty fees. But our travel insurance should cover it, right? Isn’t that why we took out the policy in the first place? Nope, said Adam, the friendly English-speaking representative of the insurance company.

“We don’t cover cancellation due to political unrest,” he calmly explained after checking with his supervisor on my insistence. “However, if you get stuck in a place where violence breaks out, we’ll pay for your emergency airlift.” That seemed kind of backward – they’ll shell out big bucks to get you home in a pinch, but not the relatively small fees for avoiding the situation in the first place?

In the end, our travel agent found us a flight that is actually cheaper than our itinerary via Bahrain. It requires staying for Shabbat in Mumbai, India, but that actually sounds fun. And get this – it’s on El Al (usually the most expensive airline there is).

So, let me see if I’ve got this right: Gulf Air, riots, threat of kidnapping or El Al, surly flight attendants, but kosher food and a safe route.

Kathmandu, here we come!

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Four years ’til tomorrow

January 7, 2011 - 11:10 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, News, Politics, War 

We can party like it’s… 2014.

The outgoing head of the Mossad disclosed this week that he doesn’t believe that Iran will have the possibility of gaining nuclear capability before 2015.

That’s a big collective sigh of relief for Israelis, for whom the specter of a nuclear-armed Iran is enough to keep us awake at night.

In a summary given to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and reported widely on Thursday, Dagan said Iran was still far from being capable of producing nuclear weapons and that a series of malfunctions had put off its nuclear goal for several years.

Dagan handed over the job to his successor, Tamir Pardo, in the Prime Minister’s Bureau Thursday morning, after having parted from the ministers during last Sunday’s cabinet session.

The $64,000 question now is whether Pardo and the upper echelon of Israeli leadership will continue to hope that worldwide economic sanctions and pressure on Iran will thwart its goals, or whether sometime in the next four years, some more decisive action will have to be taken.
For us ordinary folks, with the new assessment replacing earlier estimates that Ahmadinejad might have his hand on the trigger as early as next year, we can cross this off our long ‘anxiety list for 2011. Or as Forrest Gump said, “One less thing to worry about.”

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Iranian web: slavery rampant in Israel

November 4, 2010 - 6:55 PM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: Politics 

Blurred image from an Iranian website of Tel Aviv mall installation

It was a clever and highly effective idea: shock the public into greater awareness of the tragedy of trafficking women in Israel by creating a window display of would-be prostitutes in the popular Dizengoff Center mall in central Tel Aviv.

The installation, created by the Working Group Against the Trafficking of Women, featured seven unkempt young women in a storefront window, each with a price tag, and a sign reading “women for sale according to personal taste.” Some of the women were made up to appear as if they had been beaten, according to an article in Haaretz.

The official aim was to gather signatures to push forward a bill that’s been stuck in the Knesset for two years that would criminalize johns who solicit prostitutes.

But that’s not how it was reported in Iran.

The Iranian news website Rajanews picked up the story but instead of putting it in context, titled the piece “Prostitution in Israel” with a caption for the included picture (picked up straight from the Haaretz website) reading “Slavery Mall in Israel.” The article then proceeded to “shed some light” on modern slavery in Israel, a “country which claims to be a democracy.”

The Iranian “misunderstanding” (if you want to be kind) was reported by Mohammad Memarian, an Iranian blogger on the Mideast Youth site, who chastised his fellow countrymen for both publishing the libel and not immediately rejecting its fabrication.

To its credit, Rajanews removed the article, but you can still see it on other websites such as this one (it’s in Persian). Note that any slips of Israeli skin are blurred out. Falsehoods can be reported but, God forbid, there should be any immodesty on the Iranian web.

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There’s a worm in my myrtle

October 1, 2010 - 12:43 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Politics, Technology 

Nuclear power plant in Iran

Did Israel create the Stuxnet virus that has reportedly infected a significant number of computers related to Iran’s nuclear program and may be behind a significant drop in the country’s ability to produce the centrifuges needed to enrich uranium at the main Natanz plant? The security community is abuzz with speculation.

The virus – known more specifically as “malware” – apparently targets a specific type of industrial control computer made by the manufacturer Siemens that is used to manage oil pipelines, electrical power grids and many types of nuclear power plants, according to a report in The New York Times.

The virus is so sophisticated that it’s widely agreed it couldn’t be the creation of a rogue hacker working alone in a basement but must be a government-sponsored computer-coding endeavor.

Israel has long been known to be engaged in cyber warfare – the intelligence division’s 8200 unit is the largest in the IDF. The thinking is that, rather than rely solely on threats to bomb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities, infecting the computer systems that run those plants might be just as effective.

But is Israel really behind the bug? The latest evidence seems to indicate so…or not. The New York Times is reporting that a file name in the virus is called “Myrtus” which in Hebrew is “Hadass.” The original name of Esther, the heroine of the Purim story, was “Hadassah.” Tellingly, Haman’s plot against the Jews took place in Persia – or modern-day Iran.

But the insertion of “Myrtus” into the malware might also be disinformation – a red herring – added into the code by a particularly literary programmer to point at Israel when the real creator resides elsewhere.

Many Israelis – myself included – would like to believe Stuxnet is a blue and white made-in-Israel product. Especially this week, with the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again abusing the podium at the annual United Nations General Assembly, repeating his distorted insinuations and against the Jewish State and the West in general – a sophisticated means of keeping Israel safe that doesn’t involve an outright military attack would be a welcome and fresh approach – and one that would make us proud of our ingenuity and prowess.

There’s an even more recent parallel with Myrtus. We just finished the Sukkot holiday when Jews ritually shake the “four species.” One of the shakees is myrtle (or “hadass”). Did the creators of the code intend to digitally “shake things up” in Iran?

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