I’m definitely not a foreign correspondent. That has become clear to me this week.
As I mentioned in Friday’s Special Addition, I was in Tel Aviv to cover Pride. You can work out the rest. I appeared on Monocle Radio from my hotel room on… I’m no longer sure what day… and that is how the host very generously introduced me. I enjoyed the conversation, and the intro was true, insofar as I was a correspondent providing information from abroad. However, real foreign correspondents have a bravery and an ability to find international stories that is nothing like what I do or can do.
Being somewhere when the biggest story in the world erupts is a strange feeling for a journalist. You want to share what’s going on with everyone – take video and pictures, write lots of words. I did some of this and worked on my latest Digital Content Nexs piece during one of my numerous trips to the bomb shelter. However, the way true foreign and war correspondents go hurtling around cities being bombed, meet with people in the most dangerous of places and file under near impossible circumstances is at a whole other level. They head towards the frontline. I wrote this newsletter in the airport in Amman, Jordan, and am publishing it from Istanbul, Turkey as I continue a very long journey home.
Foreign Correspondent Skills
Israel itself remains remarkably resilient. At times during the week it felt relatively normal. However, it’s clear the situation there is deteriorating. I walked by buildings wiped out by missiles. A major hospital in the south of Israel has now been hit by Iran while the IDF continues to try and eliminate Iranian nuclear and military capabilities.
Barrages of Iranian ballistics are not the same as the Houthi attacks or missiles being launched from Gaza. While such assaults blight the lives of Israelis, you can tell they are truly concerned about Iran’s capabilities because they are actually bothering to go to shelters when told to do so – following instructions not exactly being a well-known Israeli characteristic. Those visiting from abroad have been told to leave.
Travelling to do journalism is a privilege, and something I love doing. Putting yourself in the firing line is another matter altogether. It requires flexibility and the ability to absorb uncertainty that I simply do not possess! Foreign correspondents do.
Next time I travel abroad, next time I visit Tel Aviv, I’ll be going to relax on the beach. And no foreign correspondent would say that!