Waiting Games

January 9, 2008 - 4:23 PM by

The big news story coming out Israel today is, of course, the arrival of President Bush. The mainstream media and the local blogosphere have been all abuzz, and my inbox has been inundated with emails from the Government Press Office and Foreign Ministry, detailing not only every aspect of his itinerary, but also providing members of the press with logistical details such as contact information, photo opportunities, and a multitude of other resources.

While the role of the journalist is to cover such visits, and only a select “lucky” few are have been given approval to cover the various functions taking place, I have to say that I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes, as the name of the game for the duration of this visit is “the waiting game”. Gideon Lichfield over at fugitive peace is in full agreement, and shows his readers why.

Alarm clock“11:55 – Official reception at Ben-Gurion International Airport… entry via Terminal 1 by 09:00… MBU’s [ie, mobile broadcast units] to enter… by 07:00;

Thursday:

Meeting and Press Conference of the Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with President of the United States of American (sic), George W. Bush… Press conference will begin at 11:30 a.m… All Press MUST arrive at the Press Gathering Point BEFORE 06.30.

Friday:

08:10-09:40 – Visit Yad Vashem…. Pool members at PM’s Jerusalem Office by 06:00”

At 6am, I’m usually rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, stumbling down the dark hallway towards the kitchen, silently cursing my son for wanting his morning hot chocolate at such an ungodly hour of the night. I can barely open the container of chocolate powder, let alone be coherent enough to gain entrance into any venue where heads of state can be found.

Read the rest of Gideon’s post here.

Tags: • Category: General, Politics 

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