An enormous challenge

Well, it's enormous to me, which means a lot to me and nothing to you. But hey, it's my blog, I get to pick the headlines.

Right?

So here's my problem. I have recently realized that I suffer from a terrible affliction. Namely, I'm hopelessly bored.

Now, people who know me will choke at this point, sputter, and eventually gurgle something along the lines of "bored? you? how much more do you want to do?". They are completely right, of course. Between running a (small) software company, filling a (part-time) executive role in two others, running a consulting practice, and handling a few other pet projects, one might say that I am quite busy.

But that's exactly the point. I am very, very busy. I do a bunch of (seemingly) very important things that impact a number of people. But I'm bored. I can't help it. Thing is, I'm used to having a big impact. My career has always been focused on solving massive challenges, making a big impact, turning things around in a big way. I live most comfortably when there is something almost impossible that needs to be done, and it appears like I'm the only one demented enough to do it. There's a kind of exciting energy that comes from operating in this mode, and I find it to be very fulfilling.

Right now, I'm buried in maintenance. Every single project I am involved in is now at the point of requiring a maddening number of baby steps taken, minor goals achieved, gradual improvement needed. That's all well and fine, but it is not my strong suite. I need the thrill of the hunt, not the dedication of farming.

This lady told me recently that I am the busiest bored person she knows. That certainly struck home. Of course, her solution of trying to make get involved in even more maintenance tasks was, shall we say, misguided. But the sentiment was still true.

I'm surely stuck in a rut. How to solve this? Maybe going back to corporate full-time could work for awhile. Maybe. Who knows? But this is driving me crazy.

I really don't get it

Being an Israeli myself, I must say I continue to be astounded by the ever-growing gap between Israel and Iran, and even more perplexed by this supposed enmity between jews and muslims. Can someone tell me why on earth this is so?

Persians and jews have always, for the most part, had a strong relationship. Just read the old testament, which has little other than praise for persians and their rulers. The second temple - "beit sheni" in hebrew - was built in Jerusalem largely due to Cyrus (Koresh in hebrew), the persian king, supposedly accepting god's decree to do so. Cyrus himself is given further praise in other parts of the bible. Esther was queen to the persian king Ahasuerus (Akhashverosh in hebrew), who while being misguided politically by his advisor Haman ordered the outright extermination of jews, changed face quickly when Esther revealed her own faith. Thus was born the jewish holiday of Purim.

But that is all old history, or maybe more accurately a retelling of history according to the old testament, for what it's worth. We live in modern times, so let's have a look at much more recent history, shall we?

World war 2. As the Nazis began their murderous plan to exterminate jews in all of the arian empire - the final solution - it was the persians who managed to convince the nazis that jews have lived in persia for close to 3,000 years and have been entirely assimilated into persian culture, essentially becoming persians themselves. The nazi race experts relented, and many thousands of jews were spared, in Iran and in Europe, where jewish-iranian communities were not included in the final solution. But the Iranians did a lot more than that. They issued Iranian passports to thousands of jews in Europe, thus protecting them from nazi extermination. Then, as the allies turned back the tide, thousands of european jews found their way to Iran en route to british Palestine, more commonly known today as the state of Israel.

Iran was the first - and for a long time, the only - muslim country to recognize Israel, and the two countries developed strong ties. Iran and Israel never warred with each other, something that cannot be said for countries with which Israel has fragile peace agreements, Egypt and Jordan. Iran continued to be very helpful to Israel right up until the 1979 iranian revolution, when a modern Haman, the Ayatollah Khomeini, came to power.

Then there's this rift between Islam and Judaism. That is one I truly fail to grasp. Jews (and Christians) are "people of the book", according to the Koran, the holy book of Islam. In fact, the Koran affords jews very generous rights because of that. During the days when Islamic empire was at its zenith, when the calpihate was more than just an aspiration, and even hundreds of year into ottoman rule until the 1700's, only the jews and christians were allowed to maintain their religion, as all others were required to convert or die. The Koran identifies not just Muhammad, but Jesus and Moses as prophets, as well as well many others such as Abraham and Joseph. The Koran also requires that muslims, jews and christians live in friendship, and turns its wrath to idolaters of other religions.

This modern hatred of jews by Islam is nothing but a political invention, much of it apparently stemming from the 1979 Iranian revolution. But it is nothing if not baffling. Even if we attempt the mental exercise of accepting radical islam as depicted by such as the Taliban and, it seems, the current iranian government, as a valid interpretation of god's words (being the Koran), there is a significant problem: "the convert or die" edict, and its accompanying ruthlessness, should be turned against those identified as idolaters, not the people of the book, who are as holy as muslims themselves! in other words, Buddhists beware. But by turning on jews, muslims are essentially committing a serious, unforgivable sin according to Islam.

Can someone explain this to me? Where are the islamic leaders in all this? And what happened to the iranian people? I have nothing but admiration for persia and persians, one of the longest standing civilizations, a hotbed of cultural and scientific activity for thousands of years, a source of so much that is strongly interwoven into modern life... leaders of humanity for such a long time. How did this happen? Why did it happen? Why allow it to happen? Can you imagine what a power the middle-east could become if Israel and Iran cooperated, putting together the great minds in both countries, combining persian creativity and israeli astuteness, Iran's natural resources and Israel's technological knowhow, leading together the jewish and muslim world into true dominance? Can you even perceive it? The potential is enormous! Instead, all we see is saber-rattling in the best tradition of mid-eastern politics for the past half century.

As for Israel, the country simply doesn't have a single person in leadership position who is even able to converse, let alone develop a relationship, with Iran. I am continually aggravated by Israeli leaders failure to acknowledge and respect their counterparts in the muslim world, instead relying on the same despicable tactics of fear, uncertainty and doubt. I mean, what's wrong with showing a little bit of respect? Let's start with that shall we? The muslim world has shown, repeatedly, that it is more than willing to deal with the jewish state; what it is not willing to deal with is a belligerent jewish state that considers its neighbors as inferiors. And you know something? I completely agree with the sentiment.

It's just so sad. I don't get it. I don't. But I'll tell you this. If these boneheads would just come together, according to the strictures of both judaism and islam, world order will change faster than through global warming.