Iran and Israel over Spring Break. . .and communication (?!)

For my Spring Break I traveled and spent time in Israel. I left a little early in order to spend a little extra time with my brother who is there studying for the year (he's in Rabbinical school and its a requirement that all students spend at least one year studying in Jerusalem). It was great to see him; he and I have become much closer over the years and it was great to see him again. Nonetheless the focus of the trip was to visit graduate schools in Jerusalem (Hebrew University) and in Tel Aviv (Tel Aviv University), specifically I was there checking out Iranian Studies programs. Both schools are fantastic and unique--Hebrew University specializes in language and literature while Tel Aviv University specializes in the political and historical side of Iran.

I sat in on a few clases at both schools but at Hebrew University there was a class I sat in on called Persian Media. The class was held in Hebrew but the reading was in Persian. Aside from finding Persian with a Hebrew accent to be very strange, I also found it incredible that Iranian news sources were readily available in Israel. What made it so was. . . the internet of course! Was I surprised? Not particularly because many of my teachers use printed articles or sources from the internet all the time, but it still surprised me to see it there. It made me think about the shift from paper to electric sources--the stuff we're learning about in JOUR289I. Take the current situation between Israel and Iran: overt diplomatic ties are and have been dead for decades (nonetheless they still existed; if you'd like to know more take a look at a book called "Treacherous Alliance" by Trita Parsi) and I doubt they'll restart soon, either. But in spite of this the internet allowed the very kind and hospitable professor from Hebrew University search, print, and provide resources for her class on the Persian-speaking media (it was not exclusively restricted to Iran--one of the articles pertained to Tajikistan and another to Afghanistan, both of which are Persian-speaking). If there were no internet there is not way any sort of cultural exchange would have occurred. This use of the internet flies in the face of the ignorant assumptions made by each country makes about the other. Now people are reading, learning, and finding out for themselves.

I'm happy to see this goes beyond just studying material and leaks into regular exchange of information between people. The people of Iran and Israel are more similar than they think: they both are generally well educated, both love eating meat, and at times the religious people in their respective countries badger and push the general society more than they like. An electronic exchange of information would do the two populations some good. It would take away a little bit of the credibility of the stupid and dangerous political saber-rattling going on right now.