Great story Peter.
I may have planted your avocado trees in the summer of 1967 when we cleared the ruins of the Palestinian village across the road from the kibbutz and which had been abandoned since 1948 (and blown up to make sure they didn't come back). The avocado grove we planted is still there and thriving.
It has been 40 years this month since I met my wife who was a foreign volunteer on the same kibbutz as I. I'm very Zionophile (if I was a Zionist, I'd live there)and went back again last summer to give a hand during the Lebanon business. But I'm nothing compared to my wife who would storm Teheran single-handed if she could.
I too became a hack, covering the Attrition War, the Yom Kippur War, south Lebanon and was wounded during the first Intifada. I also covered Vietnam, Afghanistan, Bosnia and other assorted awful places.
But I liked Israel best. remember: Jews are news !