Lonely Planet Breaking Ranks

Ben Black is like any other guy in his twenties: he switches between jobs, he lives on the rough, he travels off the beaten track. He smokes grass, he flirts with politics, he falls in love.

When Ben migrates from Scotland to Israel, his life takes a more exotic turn. He explores the lost city of Petra and a secret, secluded beach in the Sinai Desert. He goes camel racing with the Bedouin and feasts in the hummous parlours of Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Then there is the experience that could occur nowhere else: a suicide bomb blast on his bus route to work.

His life alters irreversibly one day when his military call-up papers arrive and Ben - having moved to Israel in the mid 1990s as the promise of peace seemed so close - is forced to choose between his conscience and his country.

As Ben tries to reconcile his belief in the inevitability of a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the realities of military service, he brings into sharp, personal focus the meanings of war and peace in the Middle East.