Not Kedai for most people--Moving to the secular state of israel (SSOI)

I decided to make an accounting of my experience on the bus to track that incredible Israeli technology and affluence that I keep hearing about.  I'm not looking for minor flaws, such as one of the window breaking devices not being on the wall or the garbage can not being present but for nuisances and inconveniences that meaningfully impact the ride.  11/30/2025 #1 Doors won't close. Driver wrestles with it. They finally close making a huge noise. #2 Door to electric panel behind the driver is open. Won't close. All kinds of weird scary wires are exposed in the front seats.  12/1/2025  #1 Car reader doesn't work in any of the machines except the one by the driver. First stop button doesn't work. 12/2/2025 #1 Bus seems to have no shock absorbers and makes a horrible screeching noise at every turn. First stop button doesn't work. Kid tries to get on with bicycle. Driver yells at him.  #2 Bus breaks down. We all have to leave after several jolting attempts to resta...

  So I'm standing in the makolet, ie the bodega, the convenience store waiting to pay for my chips. Above my head, a television is blaring. It's a news show. There are three anchors, journalists, Israelis, whatever you want to call them, and two of them are shouting at each other. The woman in particular is ferocious. It's hard to tell what they are shouting about because the voices crash into each other. The rage is palpable. And it goes on and on. Sometimes when I complain about Israeli fighting - and whenever you complain about Israel somebody rushes in to contradict or put a spin on it - I am told "Italians fight." Italians lose their tempers for 3 seconds on the street or in the kitchen. They don't rage on television (or in the Parliament) for fifteen minutes or more. This went on so long I thought to time it. She wouldn't stop. I felt my blood pressure rise, my tension grow. I tried to ignore it, but it gets to you. And it's so prevalent here.  O...

A shortage causes high prices. If there are high prices particularly for dreary, used items, there is a shortage. Here's a renovated - means old - apartment in a town outside of Jerusalem. That means a one hour commute to work.  So that's a four bedroom apartment for, drum roll please ...... 3,600,000 Israeli New Shekels = 1,112,639 US Dollars! Here's what you get for 1.2 million dollars: Your kitchen. Isn't that just lovely? Dining room or let's call it a dining area. Note that's a mirror on the right. It's not another room. See the adjacent kitchen on the left? Bedroom is all bed. Bedroom 2. How many kids are you going to fit in there? Here's your den. It's really the marpeset/balcony with a couch since there is no den in this million dollar dwelling. This will cost you $1.1 million dollars!!!! For a frum family of 6 or 7, it's barely livable. Where do the children play? Where do they study? I know a young man whose room is too small for a desk...

Availability of products in Israel is weak, especially outside of Tel Aviv. I spent months shopping for a mechitza for a shul and never found one. I looked in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. I supposed they exist somewhere, but I couldn't find them. Even office supply stores in Tel Aviv didn't have room dividers. Finally, a guy at my shul found one online and had it shipped. I also looked for months for a paper rack in which to hold parsha sheets. Finally, I found something in one of the tiny malls that they have here. Actually, the clerk found something in a catalog and I waited two months for it to arrive. Several times I stopped by the store because it was taking so long that I figured that either I missed the phone call or nobody ever called. The trip to the mall takes 1/2 an hour, so I wasted an hour round trip around four times. When it arrived, only half of it arrived, somehow several of the shelves were missing.  So online shipping is common here: Amazon, Ali Express, Shein. Bu...

"Rather than interpreting The Innocents Abroad through the satirical exaggerated lens which Twain was known for, his account of the Holy Land is taken as an accurate representation of Palestine, one that has been excessively appropriated by the Zionist movement while at the same time rejected by Palestinians." ( MarkTwainStudies.com ) It's standard in aliyah literature to print American author Mark Twain's depiction (Innocents Abroad) of a bleak Palestine during his visit here. See for example this manipulative summary at Zionist.org. "Twain’s descriptions directly contradict modern claims that pre-20th-century Palestine was a thriving Arab nation. Instead, he encountered a nearly abandoned landscape, with few inhabitants, little agriculture, and widespread neglect." His account is so glorious to aliyaniks because it seems to fit in with the idea, that is pushed relentlessly, that geulah has come, and the land that was empty and desolate of everything is no...

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The Brisker Rav said two things are certain, Zionism is idolatry and everyone who lives in Israel stumbles in Zionism. Everyone? Yes, allow an example. There's a gadol in EY who often says that Israel is surrounded by enemies. I like this gadol. He has many good things to say about many topics. However, this is a Zionistic view. How so? In the recent military conflict that Israel started with Iran, Israel was assisted by Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Help included use of air space, shooting down of drones and missiles, and sharing of information. How are they enemies? Certainly, we can propose the if not for ties with US money, they wouldn't be so friendly. That you can chock that up to Muslim displeasure with the presence of an anti-religious secular society in their midst as well as to Esav soneh Yaakov. I'm not saying that Esav soneh Yaakov doesn't exist, but Zionists exaggerate it and turn it into a religion of its own. What you are supposed to say is that...