My name is Meir Javedanfar, and I live in "oonja". Meaning "there" in Persian, this word is used by some Iranians to refer to Israel, during telephone conversations with friends or relatives living in the Jewish state. Their fear is that if they mention the word Israel, Iranian intelligence may pick up on the conversation, and arrest them. And in most cases, the party based in Israel fully participates, by using the other code word, which is "inja". Meaning "here" in Persian, this word is also used to refer to Israel, so that their friend or relative in Iran does not get into trouble.

On the surface, this fear is well founded. Iran has declared Israel as its main enemy and in theory no Iranian is allowed to visit Israel, or to communicate with an Israeli.

However, the...