Here's the difference between Americans and Israelis. I'm playing baseball with my kid in the park. We pause when people pass so as not to hit anyone. The Americans either pause so as not so interrupt or hurry by walking clearly around the bag we are using as home plate. Most smile warmly as if to say isn't that cute. One points to the wall behind us and says you can use that for stickball.
The Israelis literally neither pause nor hurry nor walk around. They stomp right over the base or bump into it just as they do people when walking by them. They make no acknowledgement of us at all. One Israeli, with his shaved head, kippah sruggah, and sandals, stopped right where we were playing and called back to his family "Aifo Shai?" He stood there in our spot for about two minutes without acknowledging us at all. It's not as if we didn't exist, as if he wanted to inconvenience us and pretend that we didn't exist.
Potential olim imagine a country full of olim, just like the ones who left from their home countries. But that's a tiny part of Israel. Mostly what you encounter are Israelis. Can you deal with them?
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