Day 2 - continued

I did not think I'd be writing twice in one day - sorry if it's a bit much.
Today my sister and her husband took us out to dinner and then on a drive around the Tel Aviv area.

The restaurant (an Asian noodle place) I had been to before, good service, very modern etc. But what was new was that the waiter took our order on a tiny hand-held computer and within seconds our drinks were brought out by people in the kitchen waiting to get the orders which are sent instantly online.

Parking (paying for parking) in Tel Aviv is also automated. You call a number on your cell and start an account by giving them your phone number, license plate and credit card number. Then when you want to pay for parking (ie where we use meters) you call the number, dial in your account # and the amount of time you will be parking and it is automatically deducted from your credit card. Fifteen minutes before it runs out, you get a text message notifying you that your time is almost up and asking if you want to add more $$.

Tel Aviv and area is unbelieveable. Almost unrecognizable from last time I was here. Booming is not even close to describing it. The amount of investment and money here is mind-boggling.

I wanted to write about this because I got an even better sense of this bubble. The world here is your oyster. It's simply there for the taking. How much easier is it to drive a $150,000 or $250,000 car (I am not kidding, there are hundreds if not thousands of them all over), live in a gorgeous home, have your kids enjoy all the benefits of what life here has to offer...why would anyone concern themselves with what is going on over 'there'?

It boggles the mind what has happened here in the last 20 years, in the last 10 years, 5 years. People are really proud of what they have accomplished - and rightfully so, they have what to be proud of. WhenI first moved here not everyone had a phone in their house! We had one air conditioner in the house and it was used sparingly. Calling overseas was a 'happening'. Going overseas was beyond the beyonds.

OK so enough sounding like a Jewish Agency commercial for Israel. What does this all mean? I feel like this country has bipolar disorder. I feel like I have bipolar disorder!!! How can there be so much good and so much bad at the same time? I don't even know how to ask the questions that are going through my mind. There is this absolute blindness, this absolute incapacity to see what is going on. Again - nothing new. But seeing it again is making me.... I can't find the word.

A lot of people say (and I agree) that it is the occupation itself that has corrupted the people to this degree. That having to maintain this horror has numbed people to anything else but their own well-being.

So.....HELLOOOOOOOOO... can you imagine if all this amazing stuff was paired with a civil, democratic, international-law-abiding society? If people did not spend their lives trying to get the upper hand, even at the expense of others?

*sigh* - I know this is not articulating what I really want to say, in the way I want to say it. It's almost 1am and I'm going to bed!!!