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 reality is different. Every year, hundreds of Iranian Jews travel to Israel via Turkey, and then return home. Despite the fact that they don't have any Israeli stamps in their passports, the Iranian authorities know very well that when an Iranian Jew goes to Turkey for holiday, his stay there usually consists of half a day. Enough to obtain a visa and then catch a flight to Tel Aviv. There have also been cases of immigrants from Iran who, after living in Israel, decided to go back and were not punished.
Two weeks ago, I visited a school friend from Tehran, who lives near me in Tel Aviv. His mother was speaking to her cousin in Tehran. I was impressed how she stuck meticulously to using her code words and was very serious about it. And then, all of a sudden, I started giggling uncontrollably. I suddenly imagined for a moment that there is an Iranian spy listening on the line. "He and his colleagues must be pulling their hair out in despair," I thought. These conversations with Iran are usually so mind-numbingly boring, that anyone would go out of their mind. I could just imagine Iran's intelligence minister, Gholam Hossein Ejehi, arresting one of the Jewish housewives in Tehran, not solely for the crime of talking to Israel, but because her dull conversations are sending his staff into a coma.
"In the name of God, Mrs Cohen, please stop talking about your recipe for ghorme sabzi (an Iranian dish), whose son got married, whose daughter is a harlot, and which family is tightfisted," I imagined him saying. "I am losing staff here by the dozen. They can't take listening to these conversations any more. I tell you what. I will make a deal with you. I give you immunity to talk about anything you want. You name it. The nuclear programme? No problem. Just please, I beg you, talk about something interesting!"
It is also interesting how Ahmadinejad has turned many Iranian"“Israelis and Iranian Jews living abroad into ambassadors for the people of Iran. This has happened for all the wrong reasons.
On 27 October 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched his first attack. During his speech in the World Without Zionism Conference, he stated: "As the Imam (Khomeini) said, Israel must be wiped out."
The eminent Chicago University professor, Juan Cole, and others have claimed that Ahmadinejad only threatened the "Zionist entity" and not Israel. However, it is possible that they did not see a report from the semi-official Fars agency, based in Tehran. The first paragraph quotes Ahmadinejad as saying: "As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped out."
On other occasions, Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction and removal of the "Zionist regime". This term clearly refers to the Israeli government. But this is a call for regime change, and just as regime change in Iraq by a foreign force was wrong, so are Ahmadinejad's calls for regime change in Israel.
All these threats have created a Nazi-like image of Iran in the foreign Jewish communities. Iranian Jews are sometimes asked: "How could you live in such a racist country?" or "Would the Iranians slaughter their Jews like Hitler did?" Although there is no love lost for Ahmadinejad, many Iranian Jews feel compelled to put the record straight by saying that ordinary Iranians are wonderful people and their president does not represent their views. They do not want Israel destroyed. Nevertheless, the actions and policies of the Iranian government towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continue to cause damage, not just for Israel and the Palestinians, but also for the people of Iran.
Calls for the elimination of Israel are wrong and counter-productive for both sides. It is not Ayatollah Khamenei whose house is bombarded. While he is sitting comfortably in his well-protected residence, it is the people of Gaza and Lebanon who pay the price, with their lives and their property.
Also, it is difficult to see how Khamenei and Ahmadinejad's animosity towards Israel serve the national interest of their country. Iran and Israel have no land or historic disputes. It wasn't Israel who invaded Iran. It was Iraq, not Israel, that killed more than half a million Iranians and caused close to half a trillion dollars' damage to the Iranian economy. However, Khamenei shows no animosity towards Iraq. In fact, some rightwing Iranian clergy even wanted to help Saddam fight the Americans in 1991, despite his heinous acts. Yet, Israel which has no borders with Iran and in fact helped Iran during the war against Iraq by supplying weapons, is threatened with annihilation. One has to ask: apart from sanctions and isolation, what have the people of Iran gained from such policies?
The coming elections in Iran could create a turnaround, at least in Iran's behaviour. The majority of Iranian-Israelis and Iranian Jews worldwide want to see a decrease in tensions. Their hope is that Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the reformist candidate, will win.
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