RETURN. A holiday by the Sea of Galilee

The Sea of Galilee is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth. That's as may be, but the water level goes down year by year, which goes to show, you can always get lower...

Ephraim, the bass playing Jew from New York is going out of his mind. He's spent the last four years working out to the very last detail, a peace plan for Israel and Palestine, which is fair and just to both sides, realistic and includes measures for every unforeseen eventuality. Nobody will listen to him. He feels like a nobody. He's been trying to get the Israelis and Palestinians to talk to each other, but the Israelis call him a traitor and the Palestinians are too wary to be seen to be colluding with the enemy to talk to the Israelis. He wants me to fight his trolls on facebook, but I've got better things to do. Besides I've got my own trolls to deal with. They're relentless. I think they get special training. They make you lose all hope. At least, they try to. Right now, it feels they're winning. At least with me.

A heatwave is gripping the nation and many other parts of the world. Forests are burning in the Arctic circle, from Scandinavia to Alaska. Once again high temperatures are breaking all previous records. Air conditioners (for those who have them) are turned up high, causing more global warming. Many folks don't have air conditioners. Some don't even have electricity.

Three depressing days of needless violence. Three fifteen year old boys dead in Gaza. All of them remind me of my own fifteen year old son. Defiant teenagers with Elvis Presley haircuts. One was shot through the chest by an Israeli army sniper as he climbed the separation fence. The other two blown up by a bomb, shot from a plane as they played on the roof of a building. Air raid sirens in the south of Israel as rockets are fired from besieged Gaza into 'free' Israel. Children on both sides of the fence are living in terror of sudden, violent death. No sleep tonight for them or their families. Nothing anyone can do to stop it. At least any of us nobodies.

My world has become a hot and dusty place of work and duty with little comfort or rest and dwindling hope, and yet I still know how lucky I am and what privilege I enjoy, though somehow that doesn't make it better. I need a break. I can't remember the last time I had a holiday.

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As my endless good fortune would have it, Galit's mum treats all the family to a two night stay at Hotel Ginosaur on the Kineret. It's one of our favourite places to go for days out. To get to actually stay at the hotel is something of a dream for us – especially for the children.

Checking into the room, we luxuriate on clean white sheets and flick through the channels on the big flat TV. We watch a National Geographic documentary telling the story of the pirate city of Port Royal – supposedly the wickedest city on Earth in its heyday – and how it was suddenly and unexpectedly swallowed up by the sea, in about two minutes, around lunchtime, in 1692. An earthquake turned to land into quicksand and swallowed whole streets and buildings – about a third of the city and its inhabitants were lost.

The awesome power of nature. The impermanence of everything. I'd never even heard of Port Royal, Jamaica. So many histories – nobody can know them all.

In 1692, Jamaica was a small island outpost of the British Empire, surrounded on all sides by enemy Spanish colonies in the 'new world' settlements of the Americas. With characteristic cunning and lack of morals, the British enlisted the help of pirates to cause trouble for the Spanish merchant ships who had to pass that way on their voyages to and from Europe. The British allowed the pirates safe haven in Port Royal in return for a quarter of all their plunder. Port Royal became one of the wealthiest and also most debauched cities of the world. How much has changed since those days, and how much hasn't.

I lay back on the soft bed and close my eyes. The aircon is cool, making me sleepy. I'm so tired. Tired and strung out, but I'm starting to feel human again.

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A swim in the pool, a nice hot bath, clean white towels, supper laid on, no washing up..

Sitting on the balcony in the warm evening, apart from the chatter of the occasional passing hotel guest, the only sound is the wind in the eucalyptus trees and the crickets. Looking out onto the manicured lawn, feeling like a jackpot winner, a rock star, maybe a nobody, but a little bit less so, I enjoy a smoke..

The problem with Ephraim's plan of course, is that it's too complicated for most people. It occurs to me that a simpler plan for world peace would be this: Give everyone a break. A holiday in a nice hotel. Maybe a couple of weeks of the year, taken all at once, or spread out into mini breaks. Even a month, if budgets allowed. Stop all military spending and give everyone a nice break instead. I'm sure it would be much cheaper than all the money spent on war and prison. It would also be good for the economy and tourist industry. A lot of people don't ever get such a break. Their lives are very hard. They don't ever get to feel like a somebody . A lot of folks don't have much to look forward to. Of course, a lot of people already take holidays, travel, stay in nice hotels, so they wouldn't have to take the offer. It wouldn't be compulsory. The change would be immediate and positive, I'm sure of it. Who could possibly be against such a plan..?

I take a walk down to the water's edge. Mars is unusually bright in the sky tonight. The water laps almost silently against the shore of the holy lake. The place where Jesus is said to have walked on the water. The silence is only broken by an occasional, deep rumbling sound coming from the east. I don't know what it is. It could be coming from Syria, just beyond the hills on the other side of the lake. I don't know..

A group of young Americans make their way noisily down the long gravel beach towards the waters edge. They talk in loud excited voices, like young people do when they're on such a tour, like Americans do generally. Their voices break through the stillness as they wade out into the water, carrying a portable loudspeaker, playing some very sanitised, commercial hip-hop – loving the music - having the time of their lives. I smile, enjoying their youthful exuberance. They're a group of Christians in their early twenties, on a bible tour. They're following the life of Jesus.

..Look! Look around! I love Galilee! Isn't it the most beautiful place in the world..

..Back in the States, the way I like to unwind is to drive. Just get in my car and drive for a couple of hours or so.. just drive out to the mountains.. out to the lake.. I put on a good playlist.. put it on loud and just drive.. There's places that look just like this at night.. except without any lights on the other side.. just the nature and the stars..