I know that most of my recent blogs have been surprisingly very positive. Those who know me remember that I was the one in our family who didn't want to come here. I always imagined us living happily ever after in Boston, perhaps moving to the warmer California or to the eclectic New York. Not Israel with all its political and social problems. However, over those three years since we moved back I somehow, unexpectedly, slowly fell in love with this country. Again. We are happier here now than what I ever imagined us to be. Yet there are a number of things in Israel that still drive me nuts.
- Reckless driving culture and the traffic police that does absolutely nothing to punish violation of the rules: speeding, lack of signalling, illegal lane change, no stopping at the crosswalks, no courtesy, texting and talking on the phone while driving. Ironically, buses that many of the foreigners so worry about thinking of suicide bombers, is the safest and easiest way to travel in Israel.
- Government support for the settlements: more and more funds funneled into the development on the territories, new construction plans approved weekly. While there is plenty of opposition to it expressed in the Hebrew and English-language media, Russian-language media is maddeningly right-wing.
- Some remaining barbaric cultural norms: luck of conversational culture, everyone is talking at once. Majority of Israeli men feel entitled to peeing like a dog anywhere outside along a curb or in the bushes. People are using toothpicks openly at the table at the end of the meal at home and in the restaurants. Somehow this private personal hygiene became a public activity.
- Despite all of the above Israel is wonderful country whose strongest natural resource is its people: creative, smart, caring, compassionate, and tolerant. Therefore it is especially sad to see a very negligent and primitive PR the Israeli government produces toward abroad presenting the country and its citizens as unreliable, extremist and rude.
