“Iranians, we love you. We will never bomb your country.”
This message, spread through an Israeli Youtube and Facebook campaign for peace, is now all over Middle Eastern media. It’s on Al Jazeera. Articles in Haaretz Israel on tangentially related subjects mention the campaign.
The message is honest and simple. Ronnie Edry, the Israeli graphic designer who started the campaign with his wife, is heart wrenchingly earnest and even naive as he looks into the camera to describe how he spread his message on Facebook. His disarming optimism is impossible to disdain, and so is his right to own his message. He is Israeli. He knows what it is to live in the Middle East and under the Israeli government. Like all Israelis, he served in the IDF. In an interview with NPR, he described how he served as a paratrooper, how he knows what war looks like.
While the campaign has been spread by many major news sources across the world, its heart comes from the people who have the most at stake: the people of Israel and Iran.
Another Israeli named Einav posted on Edry’s Facebook page from Tel Aviv, saying, “I volunteered in Machsom-watch, an organization of Israeli women for human rights in the occupied territories. I was evident to 4 explosions in Tel-Aviv during my life there, was visiting in Palestinian villages, and saw the life conditions there, saw the daily life in the check-points, and do not agree with any act of occupation, violent or war.”
An Iranian landscape architect named Mesjid started an equivalent campaign with a Facebook page called “Iran loves Israel,” despite the difficulties imposed by Iranian government censorship.
This anti-war message is simple, but it is not an oversimplification. It comes from people with direct experience with the issues at stake, and who have come to the conclusion that they don’t want or need war. The same cannot be said of Ben Stein, who made a statement this week on the CBS News program Sunday Morning titled “Israel faces another holocaust” in defense of an Israeli preemptive strike against Iran.
In his announcement, Stein had the pretension to claim to speak for all Israelis. He does not. Public opinion polls have shown that Israelis are deeply divided on the issue.
“It is all fine to urge patience on Israel, to assure Israel that sanctions maybe will work,” Stein said in his announcement. “‘Maybe’ is not good enough. The Israeli Jews – the children and grandchildren of the wretched survivors of the Holocaust – cannot accept ‘maybe.’ They have learned the hard way that here on Earth, there have not been many Passovers for a long time.”
It is ridiculous to think that there would be no “maybes” about the outcome decision to strike against Iran preemptively. Such a strike would lead to war, a war that would have unpredictable consequences for everyone in the region.
Stein made no reference at all to the Iranian and Palestinian lives that might also be lost in a war. He also takes for granted that the Iranian government has the ability to inflict “another holocaust,” which is a major leap. Actual investigation into Iran’s nuclear capabilities has revealed that Iran’s threat is a lot worse in rhetoric than in reality.
Ronnie Edry says what Ben Stein does not.
“I see sometimes here on the TV an Iranian,” Edry said. “He is talking about war. I am sure he does not represent all of the people of Iran. If you see someone on your TV talking about bombing you, be sure, he does not represent all of the people of Israel.”
In all of this, it is encouraging that the message that is honest and brave has also proved to be very powerful. While Ben Stein has already received negative response for his statement on Sunday, Edry’s message has spread like wildfire. Now we have yet to see whether this voice can have an influence on the government that controls its destiny.
