I have had to give some thought to this, whether or not to follow or subscribe to this campaign. Today I thought I saw my daughter fall from a bench and I was shamefully relieved when I realised it was someone else’s daughter, not mine. That incident is a perfect way to describe my feeling to Israel. In anticipation of the likely war with Iran, I haven’t thought about the consequences to Iranian families that could lose their relatives etc, I have only been concerned about the consequences for citizens and soldiers of Israel, from any Iranian retaliation.
Despite believing that Iran needs to be less conservative and integrate with popular western world culture, there are comparable aspects of Israeli politics and policies that I wish would change too, such as settlement building etc. This “I love Iran” campaign, like the recent KONY 2012, is part of a new phenomena and revolution – it is just the beginning. As naive as I had once thought such endeavours are in being able to change things, I think it is not far in the future when we will realise the empowerment that social media is giving us. I have decided to support this campaign because I want to be part of this revolution. I hope such activities will lead to one day absorbing certain extreme conservative cultures into our more liberal western world. Social Media can unite people like never before, regardless of borders and national politics. Of course it would be nice to think also that supporting this kind of campaign could help to avoid wars and inconceivable suffering for people on all sides, I guess that is the main point on this occasion.
