BICOM

I’m currently in Israel as part of a press delegation sent here by the British pro-Israel think tank BICOM (lovely people, by the way). My first day has been exhausting, and it’s not even over yet; in an hour or two, we’re meeting the director of the Jerusalem Press Club for dinner. This isn’t my way of making myself sound important. Everyone else on this trip with me are Real Journalists, so I feel like an impostor. Though I did get to say, “Tom Doran, Independent,” earlier, so that’s nice.

Today we went on a walking tour around Jerusalem’s Old City, including the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, got a briefing from the local police, visited the city’s main market for lunch and conversation with a fascinating Israeli musician and activist, then visited Yad Vashem, which as you should know is Israel’s official Holocaust memorial. There’s little I could write about the latter that wouldn’t sound trite and inadequate, but we did have the good fortune to be there at the same time as a large group of young IDF soldiers in full uniform, which could scarcely be more apposite; Israel’s army side by side with the reason Israel needs an army.

Read this article in full at The Independent.