"How are we doing?"

Since we got the news that we would be studying in Tel Aviv, we had heard nothing but the most rave reviews about Tel Aviv. About it's modernity, cleanliness, overall European/Miami-esque feel, etc. To be blunt, this is not the impression we've had thus far, but we're beginning to understand and appreciate it for what it is. As much as it wants to be otherwise, Israel is a Middle Eastern country dressed in Western clothing. When compared to any country within a thousand miles, Israel is downright America. When compared to Western Europe, it is still very much the middle east.

And herein lies one of Israel's major social and cultural paradoxes:
"A local journalist, Ammon Dankner, wrote of an alternate world where 'Shimon Peres’s innovative technological project causes Israel to detach from the Middle East and sail westward through the Mediterranean Sea, like a sort of floating island. Laughter aside, Dankner nailed the spirit of the time. In recent years Israel has been feeling, thinking and behaving as though it is no longer located in West Asia and can exist as an island that has broken off from it. As if there was no Arab world, no Palestine, no Iran. No Arabs, no settlers, no occupation....Rockets arrive from Gaza in the morning and venture capital [$475M from Accel Partners both on the day President Obama arrived] from London in the afternoon. Israel’s ability to live as if it were disconnected from the rest of the region is impressive and necessary. It’s also illusory and dangerous." - Full Article by Thomas Friedman - March 23, 2013 - https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/opinion/sunday/friedman-israel-bits-bytes-and-bombs.html?_r=0 

Without fail, nearly every time we meet new friends, their first question is "How do you like Israel so far?" But their question is really one of validation: "How are we doing?". America is the only country in the world that Israel looks up to (and the only one who can truly prod them to do anything they don't want to). In many ways, America is a young country (237 years old), but when you look at Israel (at 65 years), they're downright puppies. And sometimes they act like it. It's not a condemnation, rather an often over-looked observation. And when you realize just how young their country is, I think it provides perspective and context not just to their international behavior but also to their need for US approval and validation.