( CNN ) -- In a picture posted on Facebook , a man in a white shirt holds his daughter in his arms . She holds an Israeli flag . The caption reads : `` Iranians we will never bomb your country . We ♥ you . '' A response on the same page : An Iranian tells the story of being forced to walk over an Israeli flag every day when entering his school . Years of being taught to hate the Israeli flag had an effect , he says . But `` after seeing your daughter holding the flag , I do not feel that way anymore , and I am so happy . Now : I love that blue , I love that star , I love that flag . '' The man in the white shirt is Israeli graphic designer Ronny Edry . With his wife , Michal Tamir , and their students at a small graphic design school , they 've started an Internet meme . And slowly , but steadily , Israelis are expressing their hopes for peace , and Iranians are responding in kind . While it 's surprising and moving to see these unfamiliar images , it 's also tempting to dismiss Edry 's project as the latest example of `` slacktivism , '' activism that 's as simple as a mouse click , with little or no effect in the real world . After all , it 's probably unrealistic to believe that Invisible Children 's `` Kony 2012 '' online campaign , viewed by more than one hundred million people on YouTube , will bring a Ugandan warlord to justice . So it 's at least as unrealistic to believe that Israeli and Iranian leaders , both playing to their political bases with threats of war , will be swayed by these images . That casual dismissal may be too simple and too cynical . One of the more unexpected outcomes of Invisible Children 's campaign to bring Joseph Kony to justice was the response of Ugandans via social media . Upset that the Kony 2012 video misrepresented the situation in her country , Ugandan blogger and journalist Rosabell Kagumire posted her own video to YouTube . And 500,000 views later , she found herself appearing on CNN , explaining the importance of focusing on the path toward stability in northern Uganda and not on arresting a single warlord . Kagumire felt that Invisible Children did n't represent her voice and used social media to make herself heard . Edry , and the participants in Israel ♥ Iran , are making the point that their governments do n't speak on their behalf when they threaten war . Through social media , they can challenge an official narrative and make clear that neither Israel nor Iran is a monolith . It 's worth noting that while most of the Israeli images feature photos of people looking into the camera , few Iranian images do . One features a black and white photo of an Iranian diplomat who rescued 4,000 French Jews from the Holocaust . Another showcases a Jewish shrine in Iran . Iranians know that expressing solidarity with Israelis online could lead to harassment or arrest and are finding ways to reach out -- often making clear that their sympathies are with `` the Israeli people '' instead of the state of Israel -- without putting themselves at undue risk . Will an effort like Israel ♥ Iran force either the Netanyahu or Ahmedinejad government to listen to the voices of dissenting citizens ? No . Will it complicate the dialogue occurring in each country ? Perhaps . It offers evidence that not all Israeli citizens see Iran as an implacable enemy , and it replaces the faces of leaders with the faces of ordinary people . A path toward war for Israel involves seeing Ahmedinejad as a madman ; a path toward peace starts with seeing Israelis and Iranians as real people . What do movements such as Israel ♥ Iran mean for governments and their diplomats ? It 's harder to speak for a nation when citizens of that nation can demand publicly to speak for themselves . Corporations struggle to respond to customers who complain about poor service on their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds . Nonprofit organizations such as Invisible Children find themselves confronting online criticism from the people they claim to represent . Diplomats may find themselves one voice of many , complemented and contradicted by the voices of citizen diplomats such as Edry and Tamir . Expecting a series of images on the Internet to change the path of the Israeli-Iranian relationship is too much weight to put onto a simple gesture . But it 's a worthy hope , and Israel ♥ Iran is a sign of things to come . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ethan Zuckerman .
Ethan Zuckerman : Israelis ' Facebook page reaching out to Iran drew big response . He says it 's tempting to dismiss impact , but social media efforts produce unexpected outcomes . He says one effect is replacing faces of leaders in conflict with faces of ordinary human beings . Zuckerman : Social media lets citizens bypass leaders , speak for themselves .