From the inside

Since we're nearly settled into our new home (we're only now kashering the dishes), I thought this might be a good time to address some things that have been going through my mind since arriving in Israel.

1. It is thoroughly disconcerting to find myself passing by — and occasionally eating in — institutions that have been hit by terrorist attacks. To someone like me who has followed news about the matzav* closely, these restaurants and cafés have an almost mythically disastrous air about them, like Kishinev, or the sky above Nagodoches county. Imagined visages of destruction didn't prepare me for the feel of this city during peacetime, nor for something as simple as the leek and mushroom quiche at Café Hillel.

2. News reports in the States somehow manage never to give the impression that Israel is a multi-ethnic society, nor that most of the time people get along fairly well. That is to say that for all the different clothing styles, behaviors, customs, languages and skin colors ("Yes, Virginia, there are black Israelis"), the worst most people seem to do is ignore whomever they don't like. Anyone who thinks America is a safer place than Israel should compare hate crime stats sometime.

3. It takes surprisingly little time to get used to seeing young people with machine guns everywhere.

4. I haven't had a single bite of truly disappointing food since I got here. Really. I know it's there to be had, what with the kosher McDonald's and Burger King franchises, but the fact that I haven't accidentally come across something unappetizing without seeking it out gives me real hope for this country.

5. Israel does need a little extra hope, because the smoking problem here is almost unbearable. The most exciting thing about having set up a home Internet connection (this morning!) is that I no longer have to come home smelling like smoke, which is what happens when one sits in an Israeli Internet café for thirty minutes.

*lit. "situation"; colloqually, the current Arab-Israeli violence