Mark Curphey - SecurityBuddha.com

[I wrote this blog post at 30,000 ft, listening to KT Tunstall's Drastic Fantastic album on my way back from a week in Tel Aviv. ]

In the New Year my part of the ACE Team expanded to include our Israel operations and I have been lucky enough to have inherited Alik Levin and Nimrod Luria. These guys are proof that security rocket scientists don’t need to have egos and that engineers can actually be nice people. More on my expanding team (and some familiar names) when we close out a few current job offers!

I am a firm believer that it’s face to face meetings, food, wine and conversation that cements relationships and so I wanted to make the trip as soon as was possible to not only meet my new team members but also key customers. While I am always excited to visit new places it was with some degree of intrepidation. In the States and on the BBC I have seen the endless footage of war for years and became somewhat conditioned to believing the country was a war zone.  Microsoft really looks after its employees and the travel service required me to complete a special request to travel to the area, deemed as a High Risk Area. After obtaining “security approval” I was then sent various pieces of advice including details of how to arrange for special security to collect me from the plane, escort me through security and provide a “secure” car to take me to my hotel. I have a wife and kids (and a lot of things left to do with my life) and it really makes you think. Why am I going to a war zone when I don’t really have to?

I am so glad I did. It became painfully obvious in no time at all that was a huge mismatch between my perception and pre-conceived notions of what Israel was going to be and the pleasant reality I found. Israel is just like Europe. Really and the nice bit, not the harsh North gray wet and dirty bits where everyone is miserable and everything costs and arm and a leg. Its like the Mediterranean. I suppose that’s because it  IS the Mediterranean!  Maybe I am a little desensitised to the security having grown up in London and having been bombed by the IRA for decades. My sister was caught up in the Bishopsgate bombing when the fuckwits tried to kill thousands of city workers with a truck bomb.  The fact is there really is no more security in Tel Aviv than in London these days. And that’s by design; its not needed.

[Side Note: A  lot of funding of the IRA was from personal donations from Americans by the way, something I witnessed in horror when I used to visit New York in the 90's and see "Irish Americans" openly collecting for their brothers in arms in buckets in the streets of Manhattan. That is a small fact that is rarely remembered in the shadow of 911 but when you travel to the middle-east I found myself reflecting on the  global terrorism problem quite a lot. ]

The first thing you notice in Israel is that the people are genuinely warm and friendly everywhere. The second thing you notice is that Tel Aviv is a beautiful town sat on the Mediterranean. There are old buildings, old mosques and churches that mix seamlessly with modern architecture. It seems in the old days the beach was considered to be not desirable and so the industrial area was built around the beach front. Today there is a gentrification of the area including major beach hotels and shopping. I was of course working so didn’t get to spend much time  exploring but after a meeting with a client in Jerusalem we were able to take a few hours and walk around the city. We first walked through the old market. You want spice? See the picture above. Insense, Mir, you name it. Amazing. The treasures in the market were very cool. Among the usual tourist stalls were antique troves and amazing stalls selling hand made chess sets.

Through the maze of the market we eventually got to the Western Wall. You have to respect the culture but anyone can write a wish and place it in the wall. I am a total atheist but the sense of traditional and history is all around you and you can’t help but feel that you are in a very special place. We were not able to go into the tunnels beneath the square as we hadn’t booked but we did then get to walk up through the narrow streets to a vantage point to look down onto the temple and mosque.

Awe inspiring! We then went to a small temple museum that was dedicated to restoring the temple to the way the Jewish people belief it was meant to become. The knowledge and eco-system around this was simply amazing.

Sadly we had to leave Jerusalem after only a short two hours of sightseeing and get back to Tel Aviv to a meeting. Yesterday was a packed day of meetings at the office although we did have the opportunity to get real hummus at lunch.

Now I know what real hummus is, that muck they sell in Whole Foods and Waitrose will be tough to stomach.  Nimrod has a crazy theory that it contains the same vitamins as the body generates when exposed to sunshine and that the world should consume hummus as UV replacement therapy.  Whilst a real fan of the stuff I am not quite sure I buy the theory.

After such a great trip something had to go wrong right? Last night I get another travel alert form the Microsoft travel people telling me a plane has just crash landed at Heathrow. Of great! The legendary security at Tel Aviv airport followed by a good probability I would have to fly to somewhere else and then get home. As it happens both check in this morning was painless (much less painful than Heathrow or Gatwick actually and the security staff actually looked like they wanted to be there) and it looks like we are on-time for an 11 am landing. Four hour flight and straight to the office. Sod that, I have to find real hummus!

Of course for a balanced view of Israel it is important to understand there is a war going on. It is generally several hours from the major Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem although if you stay within the major areas of interest to a tourist you would never know. The country isn’t a war zone but there are war zones in the country. For another balanced view I was amazing for me to see that Jews and Arabs are living side by side in peace in Jerusalem and other areas close to Tel Aviv. I plan to understand the politics and history before returning in a few months with my wife (who has been before) and kids. Religious or not its clearly one the most important and historical parts of the world and one of the reasons we returned to Europe. I plan to take a tour by Jewish and Muslim guides.

Verdict: Israel is a great place and I would encourage anyone to go.