Islington, wifi and big middle east questions

I am sitting in Islington trying to get some admin done with the help of a coffee, a computer and fruit and nut bar.  It's not the most obvious place to think about big middle east questions is it?

You see, I'm trying to find blogs of israelis in London to see if anyone else feels the same as me.  A bit israeli inside, mostly English covering.  There are precious few.   But I did find a blog in English which tells the story of a soldier's mother in Israel.  It was pretty moving.  I mean, how difficult must it be for any mother who has to see her son (perhaps more than one son) conscripted into the army, with a real danger that he might be injured or even killed?   When I was in Israel I saw two cousins, both of whom had, or still have 3 sons in the army.  Every day on a knife edge for up to nine years (service is for three years).  What a life?

But then I saw that the woman lives in Maale Adumim, a large settlement just outside Jerusalem, on the West Bank and when you look a bit deeper, she has some pretty hawkish views.  But then you hear from a friend that Maale Adumim is not a proper mad religous person's settlement, but somewhere that people go to live in because it's cheap.  So you don't know.

In London, I don't think much about this.  I don't have to.  But it always feels like you're at a road in a forest and some guy with a wand and long pointy fingers says 'choose which path'.   You don't want to choose either because neither will get you out unscathed.  How can you choose between a mother's love, and a settlement policy that is just not right, and the pictures you see on TV and the comments you hear?

So you end up saying 'nothing is black and white' to all the left wing friends who ask you about your recent trip to Israel.  They put down their tea cup and nod as you talk about the great coffee and the family you reconnected with.  Pretty soon though, they ask 'well what about the Palestinians?'  You reply that you wanted to visit the west bank (and you really did) but there wasn't enough time to fit it all in.  And you feel guilty from two different sides because they're right.  As are the people you spoke to there who asked you how many times in your life you think about the lives of the poor, the dispossessed in London and how much you would really be willing to sacrifice to help them.  Give up your nice flat and move to Milton Keynes?  You keep mouthing buts but it's so much easier not to answer at all.

So you think you need to know more.  You look for jewish blogs of Israelis, and you spend some time in Islington wishing that as many cafes in London provided free wi fi as they do in Israel (so you wouldn't have to spend so much time in Starbucks).  

Then a woman  walks in the door saying 'Yes, inshallah, inshallah' into her mobile as she gives you a quick passing smile.