Back from Israel
Last week, I flew home from Israel. I had a rather fabulous time I must say, the smug feeling of getting a tan whilst those back in London shuffle about in grey drizzle is hard to beat. And when it comes to nosh, Israel can’t be topped. Whether it’s a cup of coffee or a simple salad, it will undoubtedly be delicious.
Naturally, the Mac came with me on holiday. I wanted to use the time away to watch Lost Season 4 (which is bloody brilliant by the way) and I needed access to the interwebs because, well, ya know.
I was on the balcony looking out over the Jordanian mountains when a tweet from @BreakingNewsOn popped into my timeline. I soon found out that a few hours after we had driven down Route 12 in the Negev Desert, there had been a horrific accident.
The death toll eventually reached 24. I didn’t go back into the desert until I had to return home, but even a week later there was still evidence of the crash.
The majority of the trip I, unashamedly, sunbathed.
I planned to go to Masada, Petra and Ein Gedi, but in all honesty I couldn’t be bothered once I got there. I knew I’d be back fairly soon and the poolside was inviting. Besides, most of the trips I had planned would be better executed with Tel Aviv as a starting point rather than Eilat, Israel’s most Southerly tip.
Towards the end of my stay, Hamas ended the ceasefire with Israel. I have to say, I had no idea it would escalate to the tragic scenes we’re seeing right now so quickly.
A couple of years ago, I got caught up in a bit of a drama in Jerusalem myself. Some Palestinians had barricaded themselves inside a house which I found myself stuck outside. The army were there and it became clear that I wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while. I was absolutely bricking it. Needless to say, I escaped unscathed, but it was bloody scary.
On Saturday morning (the 27th) I was staying in Hove and was woken up by the sound of Press TV blaring out of the B&Ws. Since then I haven’t really been able to think about much else.
Twitter has become an amazing resource during the conflict, although I have to say that the amount of ignorant wankers I’ve seen shouting about one side or the other has made me really mad at the world. When I tweeted that Hamas had sent the first rockets I lost more than a handful of followers almost instantly.
Following the #gaza hashtag in Summize is pretty eye-opening, I think it’s fair to say that the majority of tweets are anti-Israel.
Let’s face it, if you’ve got half a brain cell you know that both sides have made some pretty big fuck ups. I’m not scared to say that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, it is. But Israel hasn’t exactly made life in Gaza a walk in the park.
I’m biting my tongue when it comes to this debate, I don’t need to talk about it on Twitter. I just hope it comes to a peaceful resolution soon that is acceptable to both sides.
Mike Butcher (@mbites) wrote a post today on TechCrunchUK which caused quite a stir, the comments were a fascinating/rage-inducing read and were well handled by Mike (bearing in mind he was trying to write about a startup). But I think @PaulCarr summed it all up better than I ever could…
Quite.
