Posted on 01/26/2018 3:27:58 PM PST by Rummyfan
Israel has changed so much recently that even thinking back a few decades is like recalling an ancient past.
We moved to Israel from upstate New York in September 1984. In those days it usually meant starting out in an immigrant absorption center, where a family could get a tiny apartment at a nominal cost and months of free, intensive Hebrew instruction.
Although we’d wanted a certain absorption center near Jerusalem, no places were open that month and we couldn’t wait longer. So we agreed to go to an absorption center in Beit Eliezer, then a small, sleepy neighborhood of the town of Hadera, which is up the coast from Tel Aviv and slightly inland.
The sunny September days were often punctuated by the crowing of roosters that people kept in their yards. Empty fruit and vegetable crates lay strewn beside the roads. There was a guy who went around selling vegetables on a horse-drawn cart.
But it was much more than the languid, rustic nature of the place. These days people often refer to Israel in that period as a “backwater” or a “socialist backwater.” There’s a lot of truth to that.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
I lived there for a few months in the early 1980’s and I don’t believe that they had one working escalator in the whole country. Now, it has been completely built with mass transit (including commuter trains), a great modern airport, better than most US airports) and a good highway system..
The true reason that Israel is despised by all the Arab countries? In seventy years, the nation of Israel has surpassed all of them in standard of living, and has a thriving economy with a large hi-tech sector. As well as having converted deserts and marshes into desirable living areas and arable land.
Little Israel learned that socialism degrades human beings. If only the US could do the same.
Thanks, interesting reading about their experiences. Though on this “Bank tellers and other service people generally accept that they’re supposed to serve the public” - why else would a bank have tellers, if not to serve the public? As decoration?
why else would a bank have tellers, if not to serve the public? As decoration?
Are you kidding? Israel still is a socialist welfare state. Huge VAT and taxes up to 50%.
Thanks Rummyfan. At the outbreak of the Six Day War in 1967, Israel didn't have a full time broadcast station.
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