Some impressions from my visit to Israel: the first days after I landed I felt like being abroad. Small things people are getting used to like different sizes and proportions of stairs, doors and sinks made it feel different. And what is the rain in April supposed to be? But two terror attacks, in Tel-Aviv and Dahab, made it clear where I was. This time Israelis in the streets looked to me more tired, almost exhausted.
I really enjoyed the visits to Weizmann and Tel-Aviv University, where a lot has changed since I studied there. And visiting a real sea with a real sun was something I was missing for four years. Generally, Israel is becoming more and more American, at least from the outset. There is much more visual pollution (signs, ads) than I remembered. But there is also more gardening, and the visual design quality of many Israeli websites has improved considerably. Compared to Canada, there is much more sound pollution (cars, loudspeakers). I think I've noticed a slight shift in the accent from the Polish standard (I believe the only major group in Israel without foreign accent are the Polish) towards French-Moroccan. One of the interesting things in Toronto is that Israelis who came here decades ago retain their "correct" Hebrew accent and speak as Israelis were speaking at that time. Speaking of language, it seems as if every press release now in Israel has to include some of the words "appropriate", "generous", "fair", "strategic" or "legal".
It was also interesting to watch the Israeli media. A big difference from Canada is that Israel is definitely a place where things happen all the time. Things also happen in America, but over a vast area so the density is small. To make this clearer, imagine your sole source for news was CNN. In contrast, Israeli news is two times more sophisticated and critical. Every news edition is a lesson in political science, with characters, history, and analysis that is assumed too complicated or uninteresting for the average American consumer.
It is interesting that the crisis with Iran comes up in the Israeli news every day, from a very particular angel. Israeli viewers get to know nothing about Iran.
Luckily, today with the Internet it is very easy to peak behind borders. At my department there are more Iranians students than Israelis. Like many international students, some will probably not go back after graduating. The only small incidence I remember was few months ago, when in a mass email to the entire department a student was protesting against the ban of popular American music in Iran, and this initiated the longest series of mass-email responses I remember in this usually apolitical department. This shows you that graduate students here really care much about the profits of multi-millionaire singers. I also wonder where the famous Canadian tolerance would be if someone would play Persian music on the Canadian radio.
