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

Shortly after arriving in SSOI, I got a corporate job, which was encouraging but I was soon laid off with 1/3 of the company and never got a job like that again. At that point, I knew little about the history of Zionism but was starting to study it. I found myself asking questions about its history with the Arabs. Of course, I had been told that with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict that we are wonderful and they are terrible. I still hear that all the time as do you. But I am a person who likes to get to some truths and I started asking questions because rarely is one side perfectly good and one side perfectly bad. I had been told that Israel has a vibrant democracy and people love to debate one another even in the workplace, not like that sterile America where nobody talks politics, sex, or religion in the office. I found first of all that the Israeli workplace is ice cold. The people were so unfriendly that I was taken aback. These were nearly all non-religious people, all former...

I was talking to an American man at the Dead Sea one day, as we had taken a bus there, and its a four hour wait until the return home. I said how long have you been living here? He said, "You call this living?" Same with the schools. You call these schools? If you are yeshivish or Charedi, these, in many cases, are the kinds of 'facilities' in which your children will attend school. They are trailers, old ones. I have just shown at least 4 different schools. See the bars on everything? I know a lady who advocates moving to Israel because in Canada the schools are now getting security guards. Well every school in Israel has armed guards and bars and gates all over the place. Here's one of the ubiquitous guard booth with the grumpy, glaring guard, usually an unsmiling Russian. Here's the inside of a classroom: Typically, the walls are bare and there are no windows or few windows. How would you like to sit in there and be shouted at by a hot-tempered Israeli teac...

 An ad for an apartment in Israel (and not in Jerusalem) 4 rooms means 3 bedrooms for $654,420.  And that's small rooms with no closets.  And these are old apartments built 20 years ago. The doors won't work. There will be non-operative switches. The doorbell probably is broken. 100 square meters is 1076 square feet. In Lakewood, which is not cheap housing, [it has the fourth highest home valuations among small towns in the entire USA] for $60,000 less you can get a 4 bedroom house with 1,497 square feet, much bigger rooms, and a yard.  In the frum area of St. Louis, for $440,900 you get a 4 bedroom house with 2,255 square feet and a yard on a 7,840 sqft lot. Here's your kitchen in St. Louis: It's 16x10 feet with new appliances, tiling, and cabinets. My kitchen in Israel is 12 x 7 with old everything. That's 160 square feet vs 84. The kitchen in St. Louis is twice the area for 2/3 the price. Here's a kitchen in israel in an $800,000 apartment not in Je...