After writing my blog I posted it to my facebook page and to Twitter. I decided to tweet certain people in the hope they would retweet me and increase the traffic to my blog. One of the people that I tweeted was Colonel Richard Kemp CBE. For those of you that dont know who he is here is a little brief:
Colonel Richard Kemp served in the British army for a number of years achieving the rank of Colonel. He became the commander of the British Forces in Afghanistan, worked for the Joint Intelligence Committee and COBR and completed 14 operational tours of duty around the globe. Since retiring, he has taken to writing and also actively speaks up for Israel, in particular the IDF - using his vast military knowledge to support his opinion. When Israel was charged for war crimes he gave a speech at the UN highliting how in fact Israel did more than any other army would in order to minimise civillian casualties.
Taking all this into account I have always held him in high regard and so thought it would be interesting to tweet him in the knowledge that there was no way I would get a reply ... I couldnt have been more wrong!
After sending my tweet I realised Richard Kemp had followed me back, in my amazement I went to message him to thank him for the follow, again assuming I would get no reply. I went to my inbox to send the message and to my even further amazement I had already received a message from him asking if I was in Tel Aviv to which I said yes. He happens to be here as well and invited me to come and sit with him at his hotel.
This morning I met with him at his hotel over breakfast. We sat for a number of hours talking about a number of different things, from his successful military career to my ... non existent (yet) military service, life in general, why he is such a supporter of the IDF and so on. Whilst all of this was incredibly interesting and amazing to be sitting with such a well known public figure, the coolest part of the conversation was yet to come and involved talking about an unbelievable experience which I may get the chance to be a part of. Unfortunately at this stage I cannot release what this might be but if all goes ahead then you will all know soon enough!
 |
| Me and Richard Kemp enjoying the Sun! |
An additional thought I wanted to touch upon was something that came up in conversation with Richard and something I believe everyone can learn from. In life, we are very quick to call out those people that try and fight us and show us in a bad light yet we often forget to thank those that stand up for us - especially when they don't need to. Colonel Richard Kemp is one among many genuine allies of Israel and the Jewish people and I feel more should be done in order to praise those that speak out for us. Having said that, I would like to thank Richard Kemp not just for the opportunity he has presented to me, and the delicious breakfast, but also for being a true ally, and a true friend of Israel and the Jewish people, we need more people like you!
Sorry to leave this story on such a cliff hanger but its how it has to be for now! Just to rub in what has been an amazing day so far, I decided to walk for an hour along the beach back to my apartment in the lovely Tel Aviv sunshine.
No comments:
Post a Comment