Tel Aviv, Israel

Tuesday 29^th January.

Today, for a change, it was raining. I was pretty happy about this. In fact I was so happy about this I stayed in bed for most of it. I spoke to M online. Found a lovely poem for her online from poems of the underground:

My Heart

I gave you my heart, just the other day. I meant to ask you not to lose it.
Could you please put it somewhere safe for me?
Try not to leave it lying around on the sofa where someone can sit on it accidentally.
Please don't absent-mindedly put in on the bus seat beside you, on your way to work, and then hop off and leave it there.
Maybe you can put it in a box, by your bed, so your pet cat won't paw at it.
If you could remember not to put beside your bowl of soup in the microwave as you are heating your lunch, I would be very grateful.
It is a silly old thing, and probably doesn't mean that much to you, nobody would really kick up a fuss if it was to go missing or get trampled on, but I need it in order to live, and just very recently, I have found out that it does not seem to work properly when you are not around.
So I just wanted to ask if you could keep an eye on it for me, whilst it is in your care.

Brendan Green

In the evening I decided to cheer myself up by getting hammered. I got chatting to two guys in the hostel. One guy was from Dublin. The other guy was from Johannesburg. They noticed me reading Robert Fisk and the Irish guy went off on one about Israel. He had, by the way, converted to Judaism some time ago. As had the South African guy. He was pretty well informed and we had a good chat. I began to see the complete and utter patriotism that exists in everyone who lives there. Another guy came in, round about my age, from Essex. He had also moved to Israel and converted to Judaism. He was a professional poker player. He had some interesting stories to tell about making a living from playing cards. The other two, who by the way, were lecherous old pair and were after young lads, took the piss out his passion for cards all night. I found this quite amusing as they were a right pair of old queens. In the end me and the card player headed out to a bar and left them to it. Everywhere was dead and the weather was atrocious.

… I am sitting at the bar in the hostel chatting away to two older guys. They used to work in the hostel and they are telling me a story about a Japanese guy who stayed here and then went to Baghdad. He was one of the unfortunate victims executed on TV by Al-Qaeda. I assure them I do not have any plans to visit Baghdad in the near future. Our conversation moves on to the occupied territories. The Irish guy is asking me what right the Palestinian people have to live here. ‘Aside from the fact they were here originally?’ I ask. He reminds me the Israeli people have proof of ownership from the bible. Gadzooks. Wait till I get back to the UK. We can kick all the French out, and the Irish. The South African guy’s solution for the problem is much better though. He wants to pick up the entire West Bank and move it to the Gaza Strip…