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To eIsraelis and other readers,

I wasn't planning on writing another article for a while as again, I am basically two-clicking, but the overwhelming Iranian response I've seen in our newspapers, here for example, has caught my attention.

Let me preface this article by emphasizing the fact that in real-life I'm a natural-born American, not an Israeli citizen, of Jewish descent and strongly allied to that, but essentially an Atheist. This is due to the typical arguments you see from the Atheist community (lack of evidence), as well as some of the stuff in Leviticus and Deuteronomy I can't agree with, such as:



• The law about making it mandatory to marry someone who rapes you as stated in Deuteronomy 22:28-29

• The law about stoning children just because they rebel against a parent's authority in Deuteronomy 21:18-23

• The law permitting forceful marriage to widowed women you are enemies with while at war in Deuteronomy 21:10-13

• The laws pertaining to homosexuality and transvestism in Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, and Deuteronomy 22:5.

I could keep quoting stuff, but honestly it's beside the point. These kinds of verses plague the Tanakh (Jewish Holy Books), the Christian Bible, and yes, the Koran as well. To be frank, in the ongoing Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue, nobody has their hands completely clean. Yeah I know, not every Iranian is Muslim and there are a couple of Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians, and Bahais (persecuted) over there, but that's also beside the point.



My point is we should all stop acting like we're above anyone else while recognizing the wrongs we've made to each other. In this Purim dialogue, which quotes a historical story rather than some religious teachings, the Iranians need to realize that the Jews were nearly wiped out, while we need to also remember the many souls whose lives were taken pre-emptively after Haman's plot was foiled. To take my analogy to other modern areas; in the Arab-Israeli conflict, you have Palestinians taking their desire for their own country too far by firing missile barrages at Israeli civilians, while you also have Right-Wing Israelis in the Knesset condoning ongoing expansion into Palestinian areas of the West Bank/Judea and Samaria.

In real life, two of the closest friends I had in high school were Persian Americans (one Muslim, one Zoroastrian). We've grown apart due to geographical distance, but we all had vested interests in each other, including our separate heritage, history, and culture. We thus got along famously. I believe we can all do the same as well.

Let us both celebrate the positive parts of our cultures and histories, while simultaneously mourning the negatives. I had great memories of Purim as a child, and I'm sure people of other descent(s) have memories of other holidays that may have a gray origin. Yes, let's remember and mourn those negatives, but don't ruin the positives for people if they're not actually causing physical harm to you now; this world has enough suffering in it as it is, let people enjoy themselves. Let's enjoy this game (whether it is actually a good game is another story, xD) together.

Thank you for reading,