Iran, Israel: ‘Not Ready to Die in Your War’

From mainstream news headlines it seems Iran and Israel are on the edge of war. Israeli politicians continue to threaten attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and Iranian authorities recite their old slogans that Israel will ‘disappear from the map.’

But as the noise of war rises from both sides, so does activism for peace.

Recently, Israelis demonstrated for peace in their capital city of Tel Aviv  and used the Internet to send a ‘no to war’ message.

"So once again, load and clear, we are saying NO to this war." From the Israeli-Loves-Iran Facebook campaign.

“So once again, load and clear, we are saying NO to this war.” From the Israeli-Loves-Iran Facebook campaign.

Peace lovers also continue to join a Facebook page that was launched on March 19, 2012 by Israeli Pushpin Mehina (also known as Ronny) that tells Iranians, ‘Israelis love you and will not bomb your country.‘ The page currently has more than 70,000 likes. On the same day, Iranians  launched the Facebook page ‘From Iran for Peace and Democracy‘, which soon started a campaign to tell Israelis, “We are your friends.”

Both campaigns came together again when the Iranian page reposted the following message from the Israeli Facebook page:

We are millions of people who will be hurt. Will be drafted, will have to fight, lose our lives, our relatives. We, parents from TelAviv and Tehran will have to run with our children to the shelters and pray the missiles will miss us.But they will fall somewhere, on someone. These last few days the sound of war is becoming louder. So once again, load and clear, we are saying NO to this war. We saying to the people of Iran: We Love You.

On Wednesday, August 16th, over 400 people, including university professors and human rights defenders, signed an online petition calling on Israeli pilots to refuse to bomb Iran, if they are ordered to do so.

The online petition reads:

the pilots we regard a decision to launch an attack on Iran as a highly mistaken gamble, which would entail severe risks for the State of Israel and would not solve the basic problem. As already mentioned, even the best operational success would not stop the Iranian nuclear program but only delay it – and for this temporary delay all of us would have to pay an exorbitant price, possibly a terrible one. You, the Air Force pilots – more than anyone else – have in your hands the real power to avert this disaster.

26 comments

  • callmeisaac

    What a load of shit! The Iranian government has been the aggressor against Israel for a long time. No sympathies if Israel kicks the shit out of it!

    • alexanderthenotsogreat

      I’m sad that you feel that way. Perhaps you’re forgetting that Iran isn’t a single entity made up of pure evil that must be crushed at all costs. It’s made up of individual people—human beings just like you and I—many of whom don’t give a crap about this posturing between the two countries (as shown in this very story!). Kicking the shit out of Iran = kicking the shit out of these civilians too, and for what? To pre-emptively stop Iran from using nuclear weapons? A scenario which, let’s face it, is highly unlikely to happen even if they do eventually develop nuclear capability (and they have every right to!).

    • Nexusfast123

      Has Iran invaded? How many nukes does Iran have? Zero. How many has Israel? 200 to 300 is an estimate. Which country’s intellectuals have threatened to nuke the Middle East and Europe? Give you a clue, its not Iran.

      • callmeisaac

        Don’t be stupid. After losing 6 million Jews in WWII, the Arabs (and in the last 30 years) Iran have been threatening to wipe out Israel. Israel has said it will sign the non-proliferation agreement once there is peace. Iran has been arming Israel’s neighbors and fighting a proxy war for 10-15 years. Iran is definitely the aggressor. Israel (Jews) defend themselves now. Get used to it.

        • MB

          I agree that the Iranian government has been the aggressor but a “preemptive strike” is not the answer. The devestation caused by the bombing is not worth being first on race day.

          • callmeisaac

            You base this opinion on what? When Israel destroyed nuclear facilities in Iraq and Syria it was with almost no loss of life. Also, if Israel bases it’s response on the cost to the enemy it does this by balancing the existentialist threat from the enemy. Since in this case significant verbal threats are accompanied by a looming nuclear threat, Israel has justification for a significant military strike. It doesn’t help Iran’s cause that it has been weighing a proxy war against Israel as well.

             
          • MB

            I believe that a preemptive strike will serve only to speed up their efforts. Ahmin-what’s-his-name is crazy, does not care how many people are killed, whether Israeli or Iranian, and will launch a nuke in retaliation…if some other country doesn’t beat him to it.

             
          • callmeisaac

            While I respect your opinion, it didn’t work out that way with either Iraq or Syria. i suspect even a partially successful Israeli strike would put Iran under consider internal pressures. The situation in Syria does add unknowns to both sides of the situation.

             
          • amanda klein

            Either way we can have4 iran getting the bomb. Remember beirut and Argentina!!

             
        • Chedergirl

          Defend, yes. The moment there is an attack. But to attack Iran first would be moronic, just as for Iran to attack Israel would be moronic. That’s the point – the leaders are being jerks, and there are a lot of citizens of both countries who do not want a war.

        • justanopinion

          First of all calling some-one stupid for expressing an opinion is…well criticism qualifies the source.
          Secondly, I as a jewish person am sick and tired of people using the WWII as shield, justificatoin and propaganda. What happened no doubt was terrrible- 10% of that 6 million people were taken from my rather small country-, it has to be remembered, but not clung onto. As the Dalai Lama once said, there’s only two days a year we cannot do anything; yesterday and tomorrow. However we can today and only today, keeping the future in mind.
          Thirdly, knowing the severe consequences after Hiroshima and Nagasaki or even the “vis mayor” of Chernobil, there’s no government that could justify dropping an H-bomb, hence it’s likeliness is converging to zero. If the Israeli government was to fight this war without hiding behind mummy’s safe skirt a.k.a. the US, it would be over very soon, Israel and Palestine being wiped out and irrepairably affecting the neighbouring territories. If the Israeli government managed to spool the Us’s into a third war after Iraq and Afghanistan- noting that even this bubblegum nation’s normally sleepy citizens are opening their eyes and getting fed up with fighting wars that aren’t theirs while poverty booming at home- it would create an black hole vortex you can conveniently name WWIII. Who will be the nazis then?
          Also worth to keep in mind that the Iranian government- headed by Ahmadinejad, although truly lead by Ayatollah Khomenei (“know your enemy” Sun-Ce)- is sitting at the same table with China’s and Russia’s, with the latter being able to put their conflicts aside for higher interest e.g. Kaspian See petrol. China practically owns the US through it’s debts. You do the math, we supposed to be good with it right!?
          In the meantime I keep on hoping that more and more people realise that peace can only come through togetherness as tolerant humans, not through separation as arrogant nations. It is possible, you can trust me on this…my famous khoresht-e caraf is almost done ;)

        • NS

          @ Callmeisaac, let see who is Stupid here! I guess you need to know more about the history before you make any comment! First of all for your info, persian people they are not Arab. Second ,did you know that the only country that save Jewish people was Persia (Iran), that is why we have Persian Jewish who still live in Iran ! It is a present government who hate Israel not the people of Iran!

    • Dandahan4

      Power mad politicians bent on mass murder.

  • humanitarian

    Callmeisaac- stop talking out of emotion. Kicks the shit out of it? “It” is a country, filled with human beings. It is Persia..the same empire that once saved the Jews. Stop being ignorant, war is never the answer. Natanyu is not thinking about protecting the people , he is more concerned with power. He is no different than Ahmadinejad…

  • homid

    Solution: Give the Israeli and Iranian governments a big island so they can go and kill each other there will all their military power. An Island without presence of innocent people of Israel and Iran.

  • If Iranians don’t want a war they need to get rid of their leadership. Pouring fuel on the fire with inflammatory rhetoric gives the world little solace that “we can live with a nuclear Iran”. Why should we think they are lying or bluffing when they chant “Death to Israel, Death to the United States?” Imagine if Americans were in the streets chanting “Death to Iran” do you think we’d be bluffing? Somethings gotta give, you folks need to show and prove that you don’t war… otherwise there is just going to be a bunch of dead people laying around, taking years to clean up.

    • Guest

      Liberty Newspost, please come try living in Iran and changing the government. You make it seem way too easy. Please remember that it is a military dictatorship in Iran. Ordinary citizens are unarmed. Weapons are only at the disposal of people that work for the government. Voices of opposition are constantly and aggressively being silenced by heavy censorship, lies and propaganda through government-owned media, imprisonment, torture, and death. You say “If Iranians don’t want a war they need to get rid of their leadership.” Please, come to Iran and show us how we can overthrow our government as we struggle to survive the terrible economy and earn daily bread for our families. Either that or think twice before making such statements.

    • BB

      Liberty Newspost, please come try living in Iran and changing the government. You make it seem way too easy. Please remember that it is a military dictatorship in Iran. Ordinary citizens are unarmed. Weapons are only at the disposal of people that work for the government. Voices of opposition are constantly and aggressively being silenced by heavy censorship, lies and propaganda through government-owned media, imprisonment, torture, and death. You say “If Iranians don’t want a war they need to get rid of their leadership.” Please, come to Iran and show us how we can overthrow our government as we struggle to survive the terrible economy and earn daily bread for our families. Either that or think twice before making such statements.

  • Dandahan4

    Power mad politicians itching for even more mass slaughter.
    Political insanity again?

  • The Wizard of .il

    Let me show you the difference: If Israel decides to strike at Iran, they would launch a pinpointed attack and destroy nuclear facilities and make an effort at not harming anyone or anything other than those nuclear facilities.
    Iran, on the other hand, has declared that it plans to wipe Israel off the planet, whether they destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities or not.
    Ahmadinijad is crazy. Netanyahu would be crazy not to attempt to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities.

  • The Wizard of .il

    One correction has to be made here: Tel Aviv is not the capital city of Israel. Jerusalem is. You should get your facts straight.

  • Dandahan4

    Censorship here on this site?

    And biased in favour of war mongers?

    Publish mine which is anti the mad dogs of war.

  • Dandahan4

    Moderators or censors of anti war comments?

  • […] Haarez berichtet, dass hunderte israelischer Kriegsgegner die israelischen Streitkräfte in einem Brief aufgefordert haben, eine Bombardierung Irans zu verweigern. Mehr darüber bei Global Voices. […]

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