A Letter I Received -- Israel, it’s not me, it’s you.

  Israel, it’s not me, it’s you.

Background:

I made Aliyah nearly a decade ago while in my early 20’s from a major U.S. city. I served in the army as a combat soldier, became fluent in Hebrew, I work in an Israeli company, and all in all have assimilated well to Israeli society.

Now, lately I’ve become fed up with the constant level of stress living here. It’s become so bad now I suffer from chronic headaches. My actual physical health is being affected by living here. Seriously, I ended up in the ER because my head didn’t stop pounding for over a week. The diagnosis… “you’re way too stressed out”.

It feels like nearly everything you do will incur the highest possible level of stress for the given task. You want to go shopping? Count on someone cutting you in line. You want to take a cab? More than likely the driver will try to cheat or overcharge you.

I consistently discover “errors” in my paycheck, always to my loss.

At some point you lose count of all the times you receive some bill from two years ago that you never knew you had, and now it’s in collections while your bank account is under seizure. What’s more, when you try to find out how to dispute or complain about an incident, you hardly ever find reprieve. If by chance there is a channel to justice, it’s usually not worth the energy.

In Israel it is just an extra level of being on top of things. Now, every couple months I check with every possible body (municipality, national collections, police, toll roads) just to make sure that someone isn’t trying to collect on me for some debt or fine they never did their due diligence to inform me about.

Just yesterday, I tried to take my car out of a private paid parking lot in Jerusalem, but because the management hadn’t removed the snow that had fallen the night before, I was unable to move my car. Coincidentally enough, the attendant decided not to show up to work either. Flash forward to today, the attendant insists that it’s my fault and that I should have dug my way out with my hands if I had to; he insisted on further payment. Voices were raised, insults flung, legal threats floated around. In the end, I’m just waiting for Shabbat when the gates are open to move my car.

I wish that this was an isolated incident.

I travel abroad for work. At the moment I hold no permanent apartment, and use Airbnb or hotels for the time I’m in country. More times than not, I arrive to an Airbnb and there is something wrong (no hot water, dirty, different location, heat/AC broken). Not to mention the prices for lodging are ridiculous. You’d expect, if you’re paying $150 per night for a box in Tel Aviv, that at least that box will be ready when you arrive.

- I actually had an Airbnb host offer me what amounted to a 1.3% discount on a one week stay as compensation for lack of hot water… in December!

Needless to say this instance required Airbnb getting involved. In the end I received two nights refunded, and left the host a scathing review. Unfortunately for future guests, all the host did was remove the listing and post it as a new property, deleting my review.

There really is no end in sight for this kind of behavior, it’s more than just the “charming straightforwardness” Israel is famous for. This is a pervasive culture of abuse.

I suppose when I was younger, and Aliyah was this big adventure, everything was fascinating as I tried to assimilate to my new country. Now, as a 30-something year old, it’s just exhausting, and it’s not fun anymore.

I’m sick of constantly being blamed for the shortcomings of Israeli businesses, and institutions.

It’s much like an abusive relationship that started wonderful, then turned sour.

We’re constantly gaslit by greedy telecom companies, dense government offices, and corrupt landlords that somehow their incompetence and constant fuck-ups, are our faults.

Enough… I’ve decided to leave. I’ve booked a ticket for three months on a tropical beach somewhere where the people are known for their smiles, not their scowls. After that,

I have no idea what’s next… but for now Israel, we’re done.

It’s not me, it’s you.