Bus drivers and others

Guy boards a Jerusalem bound bus in Beit Shemesh. On the outskirts of the city is a stop for the industrial zone where he works. The driver skips the stop. When the passenger points this out, the driver says "בעיה שלך," which means "it's your problem." Passenger says, "can you please stop at the next stop," which is not an official stop for that bus route, "so I can walk back?" Driver says, "we're going to Jerusalem. You can take the bus back from there." That's 1/2 hour away, which means an hour of driving plus waiting for the next bus. This means he'll be more than an hour late for work. 

Today, I went to the hardware store to get a replacement hinge for my kitchen cabinet which breaks every two months. In the past, I or the fixit guy just screws it back in, but the hinge is just plain broken at this point and we need a new one. At the hardware store is an American who is helpful but he was surrounded by customers including an elderly American man who needed lots of help. So I go to the Israel worker who points to a box of random hinges and says, look in there, and walks away. These hinges are hard to match and it appears that the store didn’t carry this model. Not finding a match, I move to leave the store. There are two kinds of people in my way, Americans and Israelis. I say, slicha, excuse me, and the Americans step aside. The Israelis don't budge or barely budge.

I return home where the English speaking handyman is waiting. I tell him about the hinge and also the problem with the bed that I described in an earlier post. He is a person of clear integrity and he's trying to figure out why the bed salesmen isn't supplying us with the proper backboard. I say, he's Israeli, they don't seem to care about being honest or responsible. He looks uncomfortable. I say to him who grew up in Israel, "where did you learn English?" He says that his mother is American. I say, "That explains it." My wife says, "But his father is Israeli." He says, "no, he's British." I say, "that really explains it."

This is Israel. You find in the Anglo neighborhoods two kinds of people: Anglos and Israelis. They are like day and night. The Americans are human beings, some better than others, but most have some sense of decency. The Israelis are impossible to deal with, unhelpful, rude, uncaring - it's not all of them, but it's nearly all.

You want to live here? Don't believe the sales pitch that tells you that you are coming home to your brothers. A gentile from New Mexico will feel more like your brother than an Israeli.