The Iranians told the Israelis: ‘You know we are cousins'

Today’s ‘Positive and Optimistic Sunday’. Indeed today’s the fifth consecutive ‘Positive and Optimistic Sunday’ post about Israel. Readers of Farmdoc’s Blog [1] and other citizens of the world, know of the deep-seated enmity between Iran and Israel. I blame it on the Iranian ruling regime’s anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial; and the incitement that results from . But whatever the enmity’s cause, no-one doubt it exists. Or does it? In the wake of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on 11 March, Israel and Iran both sent humanitarian delegations: Israel’s comprised volunteers from ZAKA [2], and Iran’s was an official government delegation. In the city of Kamaishi [3] both teams worked side-by-side [4, 5]. The ZAKA delegation’s head said: ‘We shook hands and became friends. At one point they set up a stand and wanted to hand out food and medicine to the locals. We joined in and there we stood, side by side, handing out food and medicine. They removed the Iranian flag and removed our Israeli flag and we just stood there together. It was very odd. We were suspicious of them. We hesitated a bit because they hugged us too much’. The Iranians told the ZAKA people: ‘You know we are cousins. The wars and conflicts are between the leaders, but between the people there should be peace. We can’t forget we were close once’. I can’t explain any of this. But it makes me feel positive and optimistic. A tad so, anyway.