PM Netanyahu. Illustrative. Photo courtesy of Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)
That didn’t take long: 100,000 Iranians have already joined the Telegram messenger group linked to the Israeli water website, which aims to save lives in Iran by giving away information on water conservation. Furthermore, the website was only announced nine days ago by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—and that’s not the only response Israel has been receiving from Iranians.
“I salute all of the brave Iranians who wrote to publicly thank Israel in recent days,” Netanyahu was quoted by spokesman Ofir Gendelman’s Twitter feed in a series of posts on Tuesday. “The reason we opened a Farsi website and Telegram group to teach water conservation is simple: it can help save countless Iranian lives.”
The Israeli leader, in a series of Twitter posts by Gendelman, cited the large number of Telegram followers and noted that “millions of people” have seen the video he made promoting the water offer to Iran. He even hopes that someday he can talk to the Iranian people in person—in the Iranian capital.
“To every Iranian mother, father, student and activist, I promise you one thing: Israel will never lose faith in the promise of peace and friendship between us,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying.
He continued in a follow-up post, “One day, you will be liberated from the shackles of tyranny. On that day, I will visit Tehran to meet the courageous and talented people of Iran.“
Netanyahu’s Youtube video on the water program pointed out that almost 96% of Iran “suffers from some levels of drought,” highlighting that Israel handles their own “water challenges” with massive wastewater recycling and drip irrigation that more efficiently waters plants.
Netanyahu said in the video that he wanted to share that drip irrigation information and that on the Farsi website they would launch, there would be “detailed plans on how Iranians can recycle their wastewater. We will show how Iranian farmers can save their crops and feed their families.”
On Tuesday, Netanyahu was quoted by Gendelman’s tweets as saying that the water program “shows the enduring friendship between the Iranian and Israeli peoples. The Iranian regime tries to sow hatred between us. But the Iranian people are too smart for that.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, July 19, 2018)