Gone to Gaza

Normal internships, if the word normal can be used, usually include sitting in a cubicle in a room with fluorescent lighting. The normal internship might include a coffee machine that makes ridiculously strong coffee half-responsible for the creation of corporate America. A normal internship might require a dressy or business appropriate attire. It even may require a uniform. Some normal internships include copy machines, fax machines, Dell computers, and a network system that stretches the demands of its outsourced IT division. Some internships may be supervised by Roman-nosed, widow-peaked Human Resources officials. But rest assured, our internship isn't normal.

Extraordinary internships include portable offices, open fields, and natural lighting. Extraordinary internships include instant coffee, a tasty gift straight from Heaven. An extraordinary internship allows jeans and bermuda shorts and sometimes requires the use of flak jackets & helmets. An extraordinary internship includes expensive HD cameras, beautiful editing suites with Final Cut Pro, reporter's notebooks, and fast Macs ready for anxious typists. Extraordinary internships include minimal supervision by bureau chiefs, senior editors, and a cameraman/editor/producer/slave-driver/native Israeli. And then I remember, CBN Jerusalem is anything but normal. This internship is definitely extra, extraordinary.

Yesterday, the interns accompanied Chris & Yoel to the Gaza border. We walked along the chain link and barbwire fence that separates Gaza from the rest of Israel. We visited 3 Kibbutzes (Kibbutzim), Sderot, and a few other rocket-barraged places. We drove past bomb shelters, met IDF soldiers, visited with the Prime Ministers spokesperson/Press Secretary, and traversed to a few "Hamas hot spots" and sniper zones. Did I mention that we forgot the bullet-proof vests and helmets? These might have come in handy yesterday afternoon.

While searching for a good place for Chris' stand-up, the entire CBN crew came upon a suspicious looking fire less than 100 yards away, as though a mortar or qassam had recently exploded there. Bare in mind that we were standing on a hill in an open field, completely exposed to snipers should there be any out there. In fact, one journalist was shot just a few yards to our left only months ago. This type of thing inspires great confidence and trust in one's relative safety. As we helped set up for the stand-up, we heard the sound of close range gun fire. Chris called the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) desk to find out what kind of activity was in the area (to assess the level of danger he had just put the interns in). The IDF assured him that they knew of no such activity along the Gaza border today. Sure enough, less than 10 minutes later the IDF jets were circling the area. Once this happened, we decided it was best to head safely home and not get an exclusive shot of IDF special forces conducting an offensive engagement less than 200 yards from where we were standing.

Suffice to say, this is not your normal internship!

A very artistic bomb shelter we passed.