Israel Matzav

In Thailand, Israelis save drowning Iranians who flee

I blew the picture up because I figured that a lot of you might like to see a beach at this time of year.

The picture is from Koh Samui, Thailand, where last week, 27-year old Nimrod Machani was visiting his 60-year old father Shimshon, who rents surfboats to tourists. YNet picks up the story from there.

Last week the father-son team went out on their daily rowing course. "The weather here is tropical," Shimshon explained. "Things can change in a second. And indeed, on the way back, the weather changed all at once. The winds got stronger and the waves grew tall."

Suddenly, they noticed two swimmers who were crying out for help. "Their Kayak had overturned in the storm and was swept away, they were left alone in the water," said Shimshon. "They didn't have much of a chance."

The two lifeguards rowed towards the drowning men. "When we reached them they were already at the point of exhaustion," nimrod noted. " "We loaded them on to the surf boat and kept rowing towards the shore, a kilometer away."

For 45 minutes the two battled against the winds and the waves with the swimmers on board. "When they came around and started talking among themselves I noticed they were speaking in Persian. I was born in Iran and speak the language. I told them in Persian: 'Don't be scared, you're in good hands," Shimshon recalls.

When they reached the shore the two, who introduced themselves as Mundar and Ali, hugged and kissed their rescuers and thanked them.

"When we told them we're Israelis they just got up and fled," Nimrod noted.

They'd rather have died? Maybe they just remembered what happened to this guy.

Labels: Iran, Israeli culture, Thailand

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:19 PM