Very Good News, Israel

50 Comments / 68 Comments

1. @ Bear Klein:

   Bear…This certainly is your day for being offensive….GET OVER IT…. Perhaps you should take a dose of castor oil… rotten taste I believe, but the effects are supposed to be extraordinary… like Lydia Pinkham’s Medicinal Compound…efficacious in every drop…

   Are you showing symptoms of a persecution complex…??? “SINISTER”….are you SURE you mean sinister…Do you know what it means…? Are you visulising me with long, drooping moustaches, and curved yellow stained fingernails, arranging with my buddies, the “Assassins… to climb silently down your chimney one night with a wire strand looped to go around your neck, then vanish by the same entry port…t.?? ..or maybe straight from a Gothic movie, perhaps Lorre… Karloff, Lugosi.. I say “FU”…!!.. to all that nonsense you are creating in your mind. There is NOTHING sinister about what I said to you. My eyes didn’t become blood red….fangs didn’t suddenly protrude, (dripping with gore) and my remarks were purely my own construing of what I read in your post(s). You habitually use the wrong words for what I THINK you mean, but no matter. Being an American, mangling the language is commonplace…for some.. .

   Nothing sinister, very straightforward and, I feel, correct.

   You should not plagiarize my utterances, meant to be “placatory” not exactly accurate; but I saw that you needed “soothing”….In fact the whole of your last paragraph was highly assumptive, offensive and incorrect . Just curious….you show a fondness for the word “lousy”. Do you itch???…do you have a dog or cat…???

   (You’re badly handicapped by having almost no sense of humour.)

   I used the term “butting in” as a politeness,. But I need not apologise, as on this site, for members, there is no such thing.. Perhaps you can correct me…

   I accept your negative opinion of me, and will refrain in future from noticing your poor phrasing, misuse of language, and other distorted and cliche’d.views I still respect your opinions as being yours (or Wiki’s) , but I feel free to criticise them and counter now and then. Since you cannot “Bear” criticism, I shall carefully tread the path of discretion,…”neither to the right side, nor the left side”…like the Children of Israel….

   I used to think that English was a second language for you…

   Let me remind you, that until you bestowed Alzheimers on Adam, with friendly (hard to believe) or otherwise intent, this horrible disease had not been even implied. He didn’t say he was senile, but “getting” so… which was his always-instant “mea culpa” at the thought of offending, even though a harmless and innocent error.

   Are we fighting a war here or merely discussing a matter in the mode of reasonable, civilised people…?? Also, Adam entered a caveat each time by politely writing …… “please correct me if I’m wrong”……As I did.

   I might say here that I thoroughly agree with the comments that he made about the rudeness, dangerous bus drivers (like maniacs, reputedly tank drivers in the IDF) the
   lack of any semblance of a queue for anything, the elbowing, shoving pushing, and what I particularly observed was that always, a young man solidly sitting in a horribly overcrowded bus would calmly ignore a standing old woman-or man, sometimes even handicapped…struggling to keep balance…….And our early Aliyah arrival, and experience (and non-reception) mirrored his in just about every aspect. I described it on here.

   Since you poor mother suffered from Dementia, I suppose you are well up on the subject, and know that about 75% of all Dementia sufferers have Alzheimers.

   If you wish to be nasty and disputative about that, then take on the medical experts, not a tyro like myself. Another point you might consider is, that no matter how well you speak the language, you need far more than that, to understand and respond to the “nuances” . I had a very long discussion on this in Israel, with my old chaidar teacher Dr. Teller, very religious, a very highly degree’d scholar, and a fluent Hebrew speaker all his life. He pointed out also that he was always immediately tabbed as a “foreigner”…(possibly because he was inherently polite) and treated as such.

2. @ Bear Klein:
   @ Bear Klein: Bear, my Nefeshb’nefesh counselor, who has been very helpful to me in my pre-aliya preparations, tells me that it is nearly impossible for someone who is 70 (my age) to find a job in Israel. According to him, it is actually illegal for any government body to hire anyone over 65 for a job. The labor unions or someone forbid it. Private employment might be possible in a private school, but is very unlikely (I am a retired college English teacher). Other employment opportunities for me, he assures me, are extremely unlikely. But that doesn’t bother me. I have been surviving on a very modest social security pension and some very modest savings from the sale of my house for many years, I am told that it is possible to have my social security pension sent to me in Israel, and to invst my modest savings in an Israeli bank. I receive Medicare in the United States. From what I have learned from my Nefesh b’nefesh advisor and the literature he has sent me, I will be able to enroll in an insurance plan in Israel with similar benefits if I am accepted as an oilim. Somewhat better benefits, in fact, for dental care, which is not covered in most U.S. medicare plans. Financially, I think that I will be able to manage in retirement not too differently from how I manage now in the United States, if I learn Hebrew passably, learn my way around, and pay close attention.

   I am definitely not spoiled. I have no illusions that anyone is going to treat me like royalty or the messiah. I do worry that many people may give me the “bums rush.” But I think that I will be able to overcome that if I behave with dignity and self-respect.

   Culture shock! Absolutely. But I am prepared for that. I have already learned quite a lot about Israeli culture and how different it is from that of the United States.

   I quite agree with you, Bear, that Israel is a country for the strong, not the weak. But while my physique is only average at best for a septuagenarian, I like to think that I am strong-minded.

3. @ Bear Klein: Bear, I think that education in general is not necessarily helpful to an immigrant in Israel unless you have certain specific marketable marketable skills. A person who is highly educated in some area of electronics technology or computer science has a good chance of finding work in Israel. But a much better chance if he has a successful work record in these fields, even if he has little formal education in them.

   An advanced degree in the humanities or social sciences is in most cases useless in Israel. Israel is already overburdened with people with advanced degrees in these fields.

   Being a doctor , I am told, is not especially helpful in finding a job in Israel. Israel already has far more physicians than it needs. As a result of the abudance of physicians, there incomes are much lower than in the United States, even if they manage to pass Israel’s very stringent medical exams in Hebrew.

   Much the same applies to someone with a law degree in his own country who immigrates to Israel. Useful only if you are prepared to go back to law school in Israel, learn Israeli law, which is complicated and very different from nearly all other countries, and pass a stringent bar exam in Hebrew.

   A background in law enforcement or private security services is extremely helpful in finding work in Israel, for obvious reasons. A background in the American military or in intelligence work are also very helpful.

   But the people who are most likely to be successful in Israel are those who have started a succesful business, even a small one. Israel is the promised land for entrepreneurs with a talent for starting their own business. Israeli companies love people like that. That is why it is called the start-up nation.

   And it does, in fact, help a lot to begin life in Israel if you are rich. That , of course is true for immigrants to nearly every country.

   I know these things from numerous conversations over the years, and over the past several months, with many Israelis who have relocated to the United States, and many American Jews who lived in Israel for several years before returning to the United States. I know more about life in Israel than you may realize, and not all of what I know is from newspapers.

4. @ Adam Dalgliesh:
   “The problem of course is that you can get pricked by the thorns while trying to open up the sweet inside and drink it.”

   My wife and I have been reading “The Copper Scroll Project”, by Shelley Neese.
   — https://www.amazon.com/Copper-Scroll-Project-Ancient-Secret/dp/1683509153?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1683509153

   In one incident, the protagonist, Jim Barfield, went to meet with a certain rabbi.. At one point in the conversation, Jim inadvertently referred to the forced evacuation of Jews from Gaza, which Jim had been appalled at. The rabbi instantly thought that Jim supported the expulsion, and spit on him without thinking. After Jim explained himself at some length, the rabbi kissed him on both cheeks.

   To me, it’s almost “six of one and half a dozen of the other”. Would you rather be spit on? or kissed on both cheeks? I give a big “Yech!” to both. At any rate, this is an example of how volatile Israelis can be.

5. @ Adam Dalgliesh:By successful I did not mean having money. I meant people who are educated or have a profession that they are good at. It could be an accountant or musician. Those that floundered or were unhappy in their country of origin might also have a difficult time in Israel.

   Those that are mentally soft and have strict predetermined codes of conduct have a hard time adjusting to different countries. The new country will always be at fault not the one not adjusting to the new environment. One has to be willing and determined to adapt to a new environment or culture. This is a challenge and for some it is simply easier to go back were they came from.

   I know Americans who left the USA and rant about how lousy the USA is. Is that really true. The same can be said about some Israelis who left Israel.

   Moving to other countries is not easy and adjusting does not take a couple of weeks. It is not for everyone.

6. @ Bear Klein: Thanks, Bear, for reminding me of what you said about your annoyance with the rabbinate. Obviously I got Edgar’s recollections confused with yours. But your reminding me that you did post about an experience that had happened to you connected with your marriage in Israel that upset you, and that many other people also were upset over the rabbinate’s conrol over marriage, helps to explain to me how your recollections and Edgar’s somehow became “fused” in my mind.

   I am not suprised that “successful” people in Israel get more respect and are treated better than the overwhelming majority of immigrants in Israel who arrive with only the shirt on their backs, in urgent need of refuge. Of course, Israelis have accepted large numbers of such immigrants, brought them to Israel at great expense and risk, and have given them a chance to lead decent, prosperous lives. But it does not surprise me that wealthy people and those who are successful in business are treated with much more courtesy and respect than the impoverished arrivals, and have a much easier time making friends, obtaining comfortable accommodations, etc. That is true all over the world. “Natives” alway have more to gain by making connections with a financially or professionally successful immigrant, or even visitor, than with a destitute, scruffy-looking new arrival.

   Even though I was only there for a total of eight weeks in two visits, I have not changed my mind that Israelis tend to be rude, thoughtless and reckless. We Jews tend to be very generous when we realize that someone needs our help. Israel is probably one of the best countries to be in if you are very sick or hungry. Israelis are very generous, to a fault, with their Arab enemies. They even do a lot of “turning the other cheek” and loving their enemies, the way certain well-known passages in the Christian scriptures urge people to do. Of course few if any Christians have ever followed that advice. But some Jews do.

   But manners are another thing. Jews have tended for hundreds of years to be rude and crude in their manners. I have even read some selections from the Talmud in English translation that document this. Of all the Torah prescriptions of our sages, the ones concerning “derech eretz”, and forbidding loshun hara, are the ones that are univerally violated, even by the most pious Jews.

   I don’t doubt that that most Israelis are warm and friendly people once you get to know them. But they are not especially easy to get to know. They tend to be suspicious of outsiders and unpleasant to them at first. After the centuries of persecution and exclusion we have endured, this should come as no surprise.

   My inability to speak Hebrew was not the only reason why I concluded that many Israelis were ill-mannered. Many of the epeope whom I met, or at least encountered, spoke English with reaonable fluency. That made no difference to my difficulties in achieving rapport with them.

   My observations of Israeli manners were confirmed by a book that I read in preparation for aliya that aimed to prepare new slim for the differences btween Israeli culture and the culture of western countries, to help the new oleh navigate in Israel. It confirmed many things that I observed during my brief visits, such as as the tendency of Israelis to engage in lengthy chit-chat when many other people are standing in line behind them in a supermarket,thereby holding up the line, the chaotic bus-boarding process, etc. It defended all this as mere cultural differences. I don’t buy it. Some culturally determined manners are better than others.

   My observations are also confirmed by the Israeli expression to describe Jewish “natives” –sabras. The word sabra, as has frequently been explained to me both in person and in written sources, refers to a cactus–prickly on the outside and soft on the inside. The problem of course is that you can get pricked by the thorns while trying to open up the sweet inside and drink it.

   I

7. @ Bear Klein:
   That is truly good news, Bear!

8. The F-35 is what is known as a force multiplier. If one knows what an AWACS is (sort of like plane controller and eye in the sky for fighter jets and bombers), the F-35 also does that.

   So IAF has integrated the F-35s with its other planes (F15s & 16s) so they get the benefit of seeing what this stealth aircraft sees. So for example an F35 group of planes could fly ahead in stealth and take out radar and anti-aircraft missile sites. Then F15s which can carry more armaments can bomb a target to smithereens. The following planes will know what the F35s have done and the information it provides, as it is integrated with all the other Israeli planes.

   The stealth and force multiplier aspects of the F35 Adir make it powerful weapons system. The US keeps shipping Israel more. Israel will also be in the cue hopefully to get some of what Turkey was going to get (with needed modifications for the F35 Adir). Also Israel will very possibly get the parts contracts the Turks are losing after being kicked out of the F35 program by Donald Trump and the Pentagon.

9. @ Adam Dalgliesh:
   Getting married in Israel was a pain the butt. That is a story I have told over the years. I told this story when describing why many Israelis travel to Cyprus or elsewhere to get married and their intense dislike of the Rabbinut.

   This part of the legal system I and many others find could be greatly improved. Not that all other parts are perfect.

   Moving anywhere is difficult. Moving to Israel with a different culture at age 43 without knowing Hebrew or anyone would be tough, especially at first. It takes more than a few weeks to adapt to living in a different country and culture The culture shock is intense to some at first. N’fesh N’fesh now a days does an excellent job preparing people for aliyah and helping them when they arrive in Israel. However, one still needs true desire to make it and realize that things maybe different a bit or a lot.

   People who are most successful in the places they came from tend in general to be more successful in Israel. Those who are running from personal problems tend to find those problems follow them and can be compounded by the culture shock at first. You were not the only American to runaway from Israel almost as they arrived.

   We had that happen to some on the Kibbutz Ulpan when I got to Israel (especially the spoiled rich kids). Unless someone was willing to work hard and live at a far lower standard than NY, Los Angles, or London they could easily turn tail and run back to mommy and daddy. If one had faulty idealistic expectations that all Jews in Israel would treat them like they were the Messiah that just arrived they could get despondent.

   I have had always had people in Israel who helped me and were very nice to me. Much MORE than anywhere abroad.

   Your story about being scared of the IDF soldiers slinging UZI’s over their shoulders actually was almost comical. They had NO round in the chamber and guns could not have hurt you unless they hit you with them. Then if I remember correctly you had no military or police background and are probably not a hunter so how would you know.

   Israel is not NY City, London or Amsterdam and people can behave differently such as standing in line. Especially on Sunday morning when the soldiers are all going to their bases via buses and the buses tend to get crowded. Once someone gets over the initial culture shock and learns some Hebrew then learn that the same person shoving to get on the bus may truly befriend them. The same person may invite you over for a Shabbat meal or help you out in some other fashion. I have had this happen more than one time.

   Israelis are more direct and friendlier than most westerners in general.

   You are correct some of the taxi drivers are nuts. Then the worst thing about Israel is the roads. Israel is not the same country as when I first came. When I first came it was still developing.

   Israel in many places now is similar to Miami Beach or parts of Los Angeles. It is now a truly developed country.

   Like any country to truly understand it one most live there quite a while and speak the language, Israel is no different in that aspect.

10. @ Bear Klein: Bear and Edgar:My mother did indeed die of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 90. She showed no symptoms of it that I was able to notice until about a month before her 82nd birthday. I cared for her during eight years, in which she fought the disease courageously. Her determination to survive, to remember as much as she could, and to enjoy life despite her constant physical and emotional pain, was a great inspiration to me.

11. @ Edgar G.:
    My mother had dementia. She was wrongly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. At first the diagnosis is easy to confuse as the symptoms are very similar. So in our household we used the terms incorrectly for years as we had been lead astray by a doctor. So without much thought when Adam said he was senile I used the term Alzheimer as a synonym (however incorrectly).

    You again this are accusing me of sinister intentions. This is a repeat course for you. You flunked the first time I told you this was not the case. Think what ever you like of me or not it no longer matters. Your butting in is of no constructive value to me and you are a lousy amateur ref. You would make a lousy arbitrator also because you make assumptions about things you have not read clearly or thoroughly.

12. Edgar, I still think that I remember Bear saying something, not necessarily critical, about his own experiences in Israel, during a friendly exchange with you about your experiences there. If so, can you refer me to where I might find your conversation with Bear about your experiences in Israel in the back pages of Israpundit? I am trying to reconstruct how I got it wrong about who said what. It may help me to avoid it happening again.

13. @ Bear Klein:
    “In the seriously good news department. Israel as they do with so many US weapons systems has tremendously improved on the F-35 stealth planes it received from the USA. This has greatly enhanced Israel’s military abilities and security.”

    From what I read, the greatest drawback of the F-35 is that it tries to be “everything for everyone”, and therefore falls a little short of the best in various categories. It’s no surprize, then, that Israel has been able to “tweak” it to better meet the specific requiremants of that unusual country.

    Even without the tweaking, I think the key advantage of the F-35, or any warplane, will be the number and quality of flight-hours the pilots get in training, along with the character, discipline and motivation of the country’s air force.

14. @ Edgar G.: Thanks, Edgar, for coming to my defense. I really did not intend to spread false information about Bear. And I am genuinely sorry I unintentionally did do that.

15. Bear, I am not taking sides when I say that I believe Adam truly and unintentionally confused my story with you. For the past many months he has been by far, the most voluminous contributor to this blog, and everything he posted required, I’m sure, much research. So his mind must be buzzing with info flying around. as, I am informed by a vey old friend, (a geriatrician). can often happen, without any subsequent deterioration. So, To accuse him of being deliberately offensive towards you is NOT LIKE YOU.-and CERTAINLY not like him Even when you rightly referred his comments to mean ME, and he accepted your corrections, saying humbly that he was getting “senile” (which I believe is him being “self-effacing” ) I could see his groping to try to put his memory straight. Your reference to”Alzheimers, was callous and unfeeling, the dreaded horror that hangs over every older person. I myself , older than Adam, keep giving myself “tests” for re-assurance, ever since the day, about 10 years ago, in an argument my (young) antagonist said I was a senile old “so-and-so”. Something I had never been accused of, -before or since.

    So I think you were little uncharitable and angry. NOT LIKE YOU AT ALL.

    And please do not take my comments as being partisan.

16. @ Adam Dalgliesh:
    ” I apologize, Bear. I guess I must have confused you with Edgar. I am seventy and getting senile. I admit it.”

    LOL. I’m 71, but I wouldn’t say either of us is necessarily senile. We just have so many years of accumulated stuff in our heads, it can get disorganized and messy up there at times.

    I won’t say anything about Edgar, good or bad. It wouldn’t be fair to him, because he’s assured me he doesn’t want to talk to me (do you, Edgar? Thought so.) (arms folded; scowl; grunt 🙂

17. @ Adam Dalgliesh:
    That’s OK, Adam. I read your piece to my wife, and we both had a chuckle about the unprofessionalism and incompetence of the Israeli tour group — that is, from an American point of view, which the Israelis were no doubt oblivious to. It takes all kinds, to make a world.

18. @ Bear Klein:

    Apologies for, “butting in” but Bear, This post itself shows tht your admonishments to Adam few posts back are specious. So obvious that I’m surprised at so competent a person like yourself, would not see the lack of connection with Adam’s complaints. The vile treatment of Israeli youth was only a small part of it. -the way I read it. . Your blah about US and other police coming to Israel to learn, has nothing to do with “Justice For The People”….but purely, as far as I can see, only how to better cope with terror and terrorism.

    If I’m wrong, as doubtless I am in some small way, perhaps not having read everything in context, please correct me. I don’t mind occasionally making a fool of myself by incorrectly interpreting the content.

    After living in Netanya for some years, we moved to Karmiel. Myself with my wife and 4 very small children, for several years, and the corruption, and collusion of the police with the Moetza Mekomit, was so appalling, that I actually ended up in a cell for hours, with an Arab supposed terrorist, to try to get me to drop my charges against the Municipality who had swindled me monstrously. Further atrocities were committed against me which resulted in my total apartment and ALL contents, even photos, torn to shreds, over a period of months whilst we were abroad. And the other 24 apartment occupants knew what was happening including severl very close friends, ignored it. Even in the street right outside the block, in my parking spaces, my new car and touring trailer (the first seen in Israel) were totally demolished. It must have taken weeks for that alone.

    {{I have given a partial, brief account of this cataclysmic (to me at least) event in earlier posts which I’m sure you’ve read-I mentioned complete destruction of over 140 expensive musical instruments, bells flattened clarinets, broken -maybe with an axe.. my expensive top-of-the-line stereo w/2 5′ speaker columns smashed and torn to shreds etc. }}.

    I’ll tell you a little more, We returned to Canada in early 1989, with a few shattered remnants, of a 5 large roomed apartment, packed in cardboard boxes, including the tiny pieces of the 1908 colour (faded) very large early teens photo of my dear mother on canvas, torn to coin sized shreds..which took me nearly 3 months to piece together-sort-of)…

    To this very day, I have not had the heart to open and look at those boxes which are still fastened just as they arrived .

    My letter to Yosef Burg, then Interior Minister, was ignored for months… they refused to return my fingerprints, and Burg eventually said that such a thing could not happen in Israel. and dropped the whole thing. I even went to court, which is another looong painful story, but resulted in my wife, my 4 Israeli kids and myself abandoning Israel for ever. I still love the country as you all well know, but ….truly, with all the very good and wonderful people in it, who keep it going, it is a FOUL place for a person who demands JUSTICE, if he has no special “protexia”….

    I realise now that I was “marked” from the very beginning, because of the stupidity and incompetence of the “shalich” (he used to stay with his older brother, (whom I grew up with) and send in bills for the best hotels etc, a swindle) who could only have got his job by influence, and whom I exposed in a full centre-fold 2 page article in L’Isha. Both I and the magazine were sued, but they dropped it. I and family were marked from that time on. Other strange things happened through the years,.culminating in the catastrophe.

    I’ll stop now, it brings back very bad memories.

19. @ Bear Klein: Now I have finally got it straight. Thanks, Bear.

20. @ Adam Dalgliesh:Adam I do NOT believe you are sorry at all but seem to want to attack me.

    My whole adult life if you must know I have moved back and forth between Israel and the USA. Either for prior employment requirements (which were international) of my employer.

    Later on I started a couple of businesses which were international in nature. So not all the time was spent in Israel.

    I love Israel and feel it is home. Even though I think the USA is a very good country. Certainly a free country which it is easy to do business in.

21. @ Bear Klein: Bear, I am sorry again. But please tell me, why did you leave Israel? Or are you living there now?

22. @ Adam Dalgliesh:WRONG AGAIN, KINDLY STOP saying things about me as you have indicated that your memory is not so sharp. In relation to ME it IS APPEARS NON-Existence.

    I feel for you if you truly have Alzheimer. My mother lived until 98 and her memory failed and she would fill in the blanks for the lack of memory. Only if one knew her history would they know. You maybe doing this?

23. @ Bear Klein: I apologize, Bear. I guess I must have confused you with Edgar. I am seventy and getting senile. I admit it.

    Still, if it was our mutual friend Edgar who told us these things, they are worth thinking about. He is a very intelligent and sensitive man.

    I still think I remember correctly (and again, please correct me if I am wrong) that you did once tell us (Israpundit readers) that you decided to leave Israel because you and your wife encountered problems there. Could you refresh my memory as to the reasons that you and your wife left Israel? Thanks, Adam.

24. In the seriously good news department. Israel as they do with so many US weapons systems has tremendously improved on the F-35 stealth planes it received from the USA. This has greatly enhanced Israel’s military abilities and security.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to Iran’s provocative moves in the Persian Gulf and other threats from Tehran. Standing in front of an F-35 jet parked at an Israeli Air Force base, Netanyahu barely held back a smile as he said that Israel can reach Iran, but Iran cannot reach Israel.

    He didn’t add the words “undetected by radar,” but it was surely implied.

    But it was late summer 2015 when reports in the Israeli news media surfaced about how Israelis working on F-35 prototypes had managed to double the jet’s flight and stealth capacity. It wasn’t lost on anyone that the extension meant Israeli Air Force pilots could use the F-35 to fly from Israel to Tehran and back without detection — and without having to refuel at U.S. air bases in Saudi Arabia or Iraq.

    Suddenly, U.S.-Israeli air superiority in the region had risen to a new level. Saudi Arabia had already begun the process of cooperating more with Israel on defense and security matters for some time, something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted at during a “60 Minutes” interview after President Trump’s election. But the idea of letting Israeli jets land and refuel in that Arab country was still a stretch in 2015. Iraqi leaders were also not receptive to the idea. But the new technology was now rendering the objections moot.

    Full article at https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/18/f-35-has-freaked-out-iran-and-changed-everything-in-the-middle-east.html?__source=sharebar|twitter&par=sharebar

25. Sorry Michael and Bear, I meant to make this a comment on Bear’s posts, not Michael’s. All my best, Adam.

26. @ Michael S: My aliya pilot tour group was “treated” to a two-hour pointless lecture in an unheated meeting room inside the hotel in the freezing December cold. Later, we visited a settlement on the Leanese border, while the civil war was in progress about a mile away on the Lebanese side. Rather than being taken to a room in a settlement building, we were treated to another two-hour lecture right along the border, again in the freezing December cold. We could hear the constant rat-tat-tat f rifle fire in te near distance, could hear artillery being fired, and saw huge plumes of smoke rising to the sky as the artillery boomed. Our host from the settlement assured us there was no danger in standing on that spot a meter or two from the then-unmarked border.

    Finally, we were invited to a meeting room in the settlement (a moshav, I think) and served milk and cookies (not a meal).

    On another occasion, we were taken to a kibbutz. Our host there assured us that only married couples were eligible to join the kibbutz, and even they had to meet all sorts of stringent requirements before being allowed to live there. This went down badly with my aliya-tour group, because none of us were married.

    When we first got off the plane from New York at Lod airport, we were greeted by an enthusiatic young woman who ran at breakneck speed to the tarmac to meet us. She then made us run back with her to a meeting room in a building in the airport. Since some of the prospictive slim were middle-aged or even elderly (I was 43 at the time), this was something of a hardship for us. When we arrived at the airport meeting room, I had to visit a restroom urgently. When I emerged a few minutes later, I discovered that everyone had vanished, including our guide, leaving me alone. I found someone in a corridor (I don’t know whether she was connected to the sponsoring aliya organization or not), who gave me the address in Tel Aviv to which the group had been taken. A man standing nearby who heard us talking ushered me into a limousine and drove me to the meeting center in Tel Aviv. I finally arrived at the meeting room where my fellow prospective slim were being subjected to a lecture (no one had been allowed to go to their rooms in a earby hotel, unpack, freshen up, etc.) No one in the room seemed to notice that I had been absent earlier, that I had not been with the group when it departed from Lod airport, or expressed any concern that I had not been with the others when they arrived at the Tel Aviv meeting center, or any gratification that I had now rejoined them. Obviously, no head-count was taken, and no one had checked to see if everyone was present when the group departed from the airport. Years later, when I read the horror stories about the fairly numerous Israelis who abandoned their children in locked cars or buses, where they died, I wasn’t the least bit surprised.

27. In the spirit of the article:

    200 Immigrants Arrive in Israel, Kicking Off ‘Aliyah Season’

    Some 200 Olim, immigrants arrived in Israel on Wednesday from France, Russia, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela aboard special flights organized by The Jewish Agency for Israel.

    Close to 30,000 Jews from around the world chose to make Israel their new home during 2018, a 5 percent increase year-over-year.

    Some 3.5 million people have made Aliyah since 1948, making up 42 percent of the total population.

    In 2018, over 70 years after the Holocaust, the world’s largest Jewish population lives in Israel. This figure represents 43 percent of world Jewry.

28. @ Adam Dalgliesh:
    You must be confusing me with someone else ( maybe Edgar).

    My wife who I met in Israel was a native born Sabra (Jewish) and did not need a conversion, as neither did I. You are completely off base on everything you just wrote above and NOT ONE item you wrote is factual or pertains to me. You maybe confusing me with Edgar who some of the facts seem to relate to his story. If I recall he left Israel after 15 years and some serious problems.

    You now appear desperate to attack me for pointing out positive things about Israel. Yes it does have many things that need improvement and is clearly a work in progress.

    I could go on but I will wait for your apology. Again NOT ONE thing you wrote above pertains to me or my wife or is even slightly accurate.

29. Although it is true that I have only visited Israel twice (once on a pre-aliya pilot tour) for a total of eight weeks, I was able to see and hear enough to convince me that Israeli society was profoundly dysfunctional. In my pre-aliya tour, we were housed in hotels with no heat, in which contruction workers were at work in rooms only a few doors down from us, and creatied a horrible racket. Construction areas were not cordoned off from the areas occupied by the hotel guests. On the street, they were not cordoned off from pedestrians. One of my fellow olim was a construction contractor from Oregon, who pointed out to us that this failure to protect the public from construction debris and accidents was strictly forbidden in the U.S. by construction codes.

    Once I had to go into a public lavatory to pee. The lavotary was packed with soldiers with the Uzis carelessly strapped over their backs. The barrel of one soldier’s Uzi was only an inch or so from my body while he was chatting happily with a buddy and was facing away from me and his protruding rifle barrel. Spooky and very scary. If he had tripped or stumbled , or if one of his buddies had knocked into him, I may well have been a goner.

    Getting into a bus was quite an experience. Everyone pushed and shoved one another, there was no line or queue, and everyone was swearing and cursing at everyone else. Even without knowing Hebrew, I had no difficulty recognizing swearing. The crush was unbearable. I was almost smothered. Boarding a bus inNew York at its very worst was nothing like it. When I took a taxi, the driver drove like a madman possessed. As a reult of these and many similar experiences, I am inclined to believe the stories of chronically dysfunctional Israeli behavior that I read in the English-language press.

    I have barely scratched the surface here of the horror stories I experinced during my eigtht weeks in Israel. More later.

30. @ Bear Klein: Bear, I am a bit puzzled by why you are so defensive of the Israeli police, prosecutors and judges, since according to earlier blogs of yours that I read, one of the main reasons you left Israel (to me, it read almost as if you fled Israel). Please correct me if I am wrong, but I seem to recall that the Israeli police refused to seriously investigate when you and your wife were robbed of much of your possessions. Doesn’t sound like responsible, competent police work to me.

    I also seem to recall that the raabinical courts (which are government courts in Israel) refused to accept your wife’s conversion, which it turn made it difficult for her to receive the benefits due to a Jewish immigrant, even aquire permanent residence status, etc. Please correct me if my memory of what you posted on these subjects is incorrect.

    It doesn’t make sense to me that you would defend Israel’s legal and law-enforcement institutions when you and your spouse found them intolerable when you actually lived in Israel, to the extent that you left Israel (for Canada, if my memory serves me correctly. Or was it the United States?).

31. @ Adam Dalgliesh:
    Adam

    Thank you for receiving the intended humor of my previous comment:-)

    Concerning the Israeli police, I tend to agree with Bear’s assessment — which is based on a more objective, balanced outlook than what one is likely to find in the press, either left or right.

    My experience with the police was mainly in Milwaukee, WI, where I spent much of my life in high-crime, multi-ethnic areas. Despite many negative articles written about them in the press, I found them to be, on the whole, very professional and fair, though generally overworked.

    Concerning Carolyn Glick’s comments about increasing activism in Israel’s courts over the decades, I imagine those courts are far fairer than those in places where most people live — such as China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia and Mexico.

    In Western countries, such as the US, Japan and Israel, the Judicial system is intended to be a counterweight to other branches of government. The English Common Law system in the US and Israel serves well as a counterweight to the Legislative and Executive branches — sometimes in ways which frustrate us, but always in the general direction of moderation, We are also blessed, in having grown up in cultures that have good scores in the Perceived Corruption Index:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index#/media/File:Corruption_Perception_index_2018.svg

32. Even though it was written 20 years ago the linked article provides an over view of the Israeli Legal System and points out also how it differs from the US System. It was published in the Tulsa Law Journal.

    https://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2188&context=tlr

33. In 1987, one of the illustrious justices of the United States Supreme Court, Justice William J. Brennan, presented a lecture at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and spoke about this uniqueness of the Israeli democracy and the considerable appreciation that its judicial system has earned, due to the way it contends with these complex challenges when employing judicial review:

    It may well be Israel, not the United States, that provides the best hope for building a jurisprudence that can protect civil lib- erties against the demands of national security…The nations of the world, faced with sudden threats to their own security, will look to Israel’s experience in handling its continuing security crises, and may well find in that experience the expertise to reject the security claims that Israel has exposed as baseless and the courage to preserve the civil liberties that Israel has preserved without detriment to its security.20

    Considering the threats of terrorism and other strategic threats faced today, unfortunately, many countries in the free world have turned Justice Brennan’s statements, voiced more than thirty years ago, into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

    Indeed, the judgments of the Israeli Supreme Court, and particularly those addressing the clash between the State’s security needs and the rule of law and the need to protect human rights, are studied and cited throughout the world and viewed with considerable respect and admiration. https://israeled.org/the-role-of-the-court-in-reaching-judicial-decisions-that-concern-the-state-of-israels-national-security/

34. As part of its balancing act in human rights and security needs Israel passed a Counterterrorism Law a few years ago.

    Israeli Knesset (Parliament) passed comprehensive legislation overhauling domestic counterterrorism authorities. When it enters into force in November, the new Counterterrorism Law will replace or amend a host of existing criminal and administrative measures, some dating back to the British Mandate.

    The new law is the product of a long and thorough legislative process spanning several governments. A previous version was considered by the Israeli legislature as early as 2011. Parties across the political spectrum supported the law, which is remarkable considering that it relates to core aspects of Israel’s national security.

35. The former head of the Israeli Supreme Court Justice Barak who started the Judicial Activism that so many including myself believe has gone overboard in particular on land disputes in Judea/Samaria wrote an extensive article explaining the nature and history of the Israel Legal System. Much of it is just factual but some of it is justification for Judicial Activism. In any case anyone truly interested in the Israeli legal system should read this article just for an overview and perspective from Justice’s Barak viewpoint of the system and how it evolved. He does not allow more than quoting of small snippets of his article.

    SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE ISRAELI LEGAL SYSTEM AND ITS JUDICIARY

    Aharon Barak(1)

    https://www.ejcl.org/61/art61-1.html

36. Israel trains French trauma experts to cope with terror
    Israeli experts have been training French first responders since the kosher supermarket attack earlier this year. Now the program is being broadened as France faces a terror wave.

37. American police and law enforcement officials are taking advantage of Israel’s expertise in various facets of counter-terrorism and first response to better protect the American people.

38. @ Laura:So Israelis should go Crown Shopping and make Netanyahu officially “King Bibi” or King “Benyamin”? Do have the address of a Crown Store there has not been one in Israel for a while?

39. @ Adam Dalgliesh:
    The Israeli police have such good skills that the USA police departments regularly send police to train in Israel.

    Newspapers or blogs print negative reports predominately because that is the nature of beast. So that is all you will read. My guess is you have never walked into an Israeli courtroom or police station.

    You will believe what you like I understand that. It is also very apparent to me that the subject does not matter but the view will be cup half full or empty in other words the approach will be negative. I should stop trying to give a rounded view on the subject as you are not receptive to it. Probably a waste of my time to read you comments and then provide feedback.

    The Israeli system is still today doing an overall good job in balancing security versus individual liberties. This is actually were the US system falls down way too often. The balance is all individual rights. Israel would nor survive if that was the case. Yes the Israeli system has problems and can use improvement.

40. @ Bear Klein: From reading both the rightist and leftist newspapers from Israel, admittedly those in English, it is difficult for me to accept your view that there is anything positive whatsoever in Israel’s legal and judicial system, at least as it exists now.

    Your experiences with the Israeli judicial and police system was years ago, when things were nowhere as bad as they are now. In addition, you should consider the possibility that the priveleged access you were given by your police friend to the poice and judicial systems (which may have been highly selective without your realizing it), could have enabled him and others to whom you were introduced to “snow” you with a more positive view of what was going on than you would have had if you were permitted to see everything, talk to defendants and their lawyers, view highly politicized cases being tried, see the use of torture (widespread for years) on both Arab terrorist suspects and Jewish rightist suspects for many decades),on suspects who were being held incommunicado , without access to lawyers or even their relatives for weeks at a time, etc. A careful selection of criminal cases to witness where you could see the criminal justice system at its best and least political, plus the flattering effect of being given priveleged access to the system, could have biased you in favor of the legal system.

    But in any case, the judiciary and its minions (the attorneys-general, the public prosecutors, the “legal advisors” (minders) assigned to every cabinet member by the AG, etc.) has become infinitely more corrupt and politicized since you left Israel. If you don’t believe me, read the numerous articles on Carolyn Glick’s website (Carolynglick.com, I think), which explore the evolution of Israel’s judicial and legal system over the past twenty years, as it has become more and more arbitrary, lawless and politicized. Also read the numerous articles by Yonah Jeremy Bob, who is an aggressive defender,, not a critic of the Israeli judiciary, prosecutors and police,but who nevertheless documents the blatantly political motivations of prosecutors and judges, and the widespread use of torture by the police on rightwing Jewish suspects, even though he considers these abuses justied as a means of purging rightists from the political arena, and ending interference with court-ordered Jewish settlement destruction.

41. Bibi should just stay in power without bothering with elections.

42. Arutz Sheva poll: Likud 31, Blue and White 28
    According to poll, neither left nor right able to form coalition without Yisrael Beytenu party.

    Read this article, Bear. I find it very worrisome.

43. @ Adam Dalgliesh:Israel’s legal system has some serious pluses in managing the inherent conflict between security and individual rights. It manages to maintain individual liberties but allows for judicial approved mandated holds on security prisoners to maintain security. Sometimes it gets out of wack one way or the other in the balancing of security versus civil rights.

    One of the first things I did the second time I came to Israel (by then I spoke Hebrew) was visit court rooms to see what goes on. Since I had worked in Criminal Justice in the US I was most interested to see what goes on in Israeli Court Rooms. I also spent extended time as a guest of a high level police/security official both at his home plus going to work with him.

    Israel legal system like the US’s is based on English Common Law aside for the laws passed by the Knesset.

    My impression at the time was the judges were more interested in justice and fair rulings than technicalities such as was common in the US with things like the Miranda Warnings. Expert Police Official’s (Criminalists) who had gained the trust of the judiciary were given a lot of clout when they testified or filed reports of things like ballistic tests both in civil and military court

    Yes, Israel has issues especially in Judea/Samaria were military law is applied. This needs to be remedied by applying Israeli Civil Law. Yes, Israel has suffered from too much judicial activism and hopefully Shaked or someone else will continue her evolution of the Judicial System.

    Democracies and Legal Systems evolve and hopefully get better. The US which has a good legal system is still evolving but also suffers from judicial activism in various courts. Some of the lefty judges have hamstrung Trump’s agenda. Yet the US is still a democracy though imperfect. Israel is even less perfect from several angles.

    People in Israel are free and do not live in fear of the government as in many countries of the world. Israel’s get ahead by hard work and an environment that encourages brains and risk taking. Yes things can still be improved in lots of area’s. Israelis are dependent for their own changes in the improvement of their country. It will not be improved by the UN, EU, USA or even well meaning Jews living in the diaspora. To truly understand Israel and its pluses and problems one must actually spend a lots of time in Israel. Like all countries if one does not speak the language there is also only so much one can comprehend about the culture and people.

44. @ EDDYDEE: Eddy, I truly wish I could up with some anwsers to your very important and relevant question. Thank you for asking. Unfortunately, I am better at identifying problems than at finding solutions to them.

    However, I have working for some time on an essay giving my recommendations for reforming Israel’s disfunctional political system and replacing it with a strong elected government that is responsible to the Israeli people. I hope I can finish it and find someone willing to publish it before I pass away . But of course I have no political influence in Israel or anywhere else, so I cannot promise you that any of my recommendations will ever be implemented.

    But I am flattered that you asked for my suggestions for fixing the Israeli mess.

45. @ Michael S: Michael, I couldn’t agree more about American politics. But your comparison to the Ed Sullivan show is extremely unfair to Ed, whose show was filled with wholesome family entertainment. I don’t watch enough American TV entertainment to be able to come up with a more realistic comparison. But maybe Comedy Central or Bill Maher at their most obscene moments (of course these shows actually participate in the “political process,), or some of the pornographic “adult” movies that come on late at night, or some of the really creepy “Gothic” animated cartoon shows on social media, would be a fairer comparison to contemporary American politics. And yes, America’s elected politicians, including our Presidents, have little power when they are opposed by the judiciary, the “deep state” bureaucracy, and the press–as the Trump-hunt that began even before he was elected, and that is still going strong, and will continue until Trump leaves office, whenever that is.

46. @ Bear Klein: I very sensitive reply to my rant, Bear. Obviously I was writing “in anger and not in judgment,” as the medieval legal phrase has it.

    Still, I am genuinely deeply distressed by Israel’s disfunctional legal system. It cannot be called a democracy. It is a mixture of oligarchy and anarchy–neither of which are democratic. Yes, there are contested, free and and reasonably honest elections, but those elected have no power. Power is concentrated in the hands of a coalition of judges, lawayers and civil servants whom the Israeli people do not elect, and who are not appointed by elected officials or confirmed by the legislature. Instead they are appointed by their predecessors in office or self-perpetuating committees. The result is that in a nation of over 8 million people, including probably more than 5 million of adult age, only perhaps 20,000 have any say in how the country is governed, and even that is probably an outside estimate.

    Politicians must either obey the ruling lawyers’ clique or face merciless harassment from prosecutors until they are forced from office, and are sometimes sent to jail on trumped -up charges.

    Even the allegations against Bibi reveal how powerless Israeli Prime Ministers are. Although he apparently asked the bureaucrat who has the sole power to give people tax breaks to give one to his friend Milchan, who had given him all that champagne, Brandy and cigars, but the bureaucrat refused, and Milchan never got the tax break he requested. All that liquor and all those cigars for nothing, except maybe a helicopter ride.

    I deeply sympathize with your Japanese friend.

47. The above article rattles off continuous achievements of Israel exampled by:

    An Israeli scientist has developed a new way to lure and destroy cancer cells.
    An Arab Muslim represents Israel in women’s Euro high-jump championships.
    Israel is designing an innovative water system for India’s Maharashtra state.
    An Israeli startup has truly “re-invented the wheel” for electric cars.
    Israeli businesses benefit Philippine hospitals and US visually handicapped.
    Israel’s premier dance and theatre center is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

    Yet Israel is far from from perfect as it is made up of human beings and has a very messy bureaucracy and democracy.

    When I first moved to Israel I made very good friends with a Japanese Zionist Christian. He was sent to Israel by the head of his religion to create the first Japanese- Hebrew dictionary.

    He came to me one day very troubled and told me he had a problem and wanted to discuss it with me. He told me that in his religion that Jews were supposed to be these perfect people and be so good. Yet he was finding this was not the case. I had to bite my cheeks not to laugh out loud. I carefully and patiently explained to him it was a mistake to put Jews on a pedestal.

    I explained that Jews were human and some were very good people and some less than that. He was looking for perfection and was very disappointed not to find it. I think he made peace with this. I will never actually know.

    I find some people who make aliyah or contemplate aliyah get very disappointed when they find that Israel is far from perfect. When this reality hits them they turn negative and some even start disliking Israel. Sometimes I have thought it is also an excuse for running from Israel or never coming because Israel is not perfect so why I try and make it there.

48. Adam: I have kindergarten level ( 87 years old ) knowledge in Israel Gov. affairs.

    If there is a rational solution to this scenario would you explain it please.I’m

    needing to see a method to believe it can be done.

    Thanks

49. Adam,

    How can Israel be called a comic book country? You and I live in the land of “The Four Freshmen” and “The Tweets”. If Israel belongs in a comic book, the US could audition for the Ed Sullivan Show.

50. The sad truth is that israel is a comic strip country, similar to the “Poland” in Randall Jarry’s hilarious play “Ubu Roy” (King Ubu). If you don’t believe me, read this news article in the Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/PM-wants-to-fly-before-elections-FM-sanctions-will-make-that-difficult-595839. An entity that the Post calls “the Foreign Ministry,” is refusing to do prparatory work for several proposed diplomatic visits by Prime Minister Netanyahu, and has “grounded” him, since January, in what the Post calls “legitimate work sanctions.” (apparently a strike). The ‘Foreign Ministry (by which the Post seems to be describing some kind of employees’ union) is also refusing, on their own initiative, to process passports from India and China as a part of their “legitimate work sanctions.” The “Foreign Ministry ” complains that its workers are not paid enough and are taxed too heavily.

    A country where union bosses and government clerks determine foreign policy, and have the power to prevent the (nominal) head of the government from conducting diplomacy abroad, is a comic strip country–straight out of a really bad animated film for kids. The fact that the country’s main English-language newspaper considers these bizarre goings-on normal only adds to Israel’s comic-strip character.

    I can no longer support U.S. financial assistance or even arms sales to Israel. A comic country which is ruled by a bizarre coalition of unelected lawyers, bureaucrats and government clerks, to the extent that it has a functioning government at all, which is hardly the case–is not a reliable ally of any foreign country, and deserves no foreign support.