Afraid - Articles about Israel

"Aren't you afraid?"

People in Israel are asked this question probably more than any other question. People perceive Israel as being a frightening, possibly almost scary place in which to live and to raise a family and they can't understand how we, as Israelis, can go about our regular daily lives, despite all of the fearsome things that we read about in CNN.

Well, first of all let's clarify an issue. The things that you see in CNN are correct. There are very scary things going on in Israel and it's not necessarily a safe place to be. There are extreme dangers in Israel.

But to some degree those dangers are what keep us going. We don't sit back as the people in, say, Switzerland, tend to do. Nothing seems to bother them. They have no problems. They have no wars. They have no concerns - and they have the highest rate of suicide in the world!

People need some reason to live and surprising as it may be death is a reason for life. Death is a reason to live.

When you have the possibility of danger, when you look around you and you see the terrible things that could happen, you take every minute of your life more seriously. People don't waste their time as much as they may do in another place. People don't make foolish mistakes. People don't delay growing up. People don't put off the important things that they want to do in life because they don't know what will happen tomorrow. People know that they have to accomplish any important thing today because there may not be a tomorrow for them.

Whereas people living in some other countries or locations might be dependent on sources of entertainment, they may wither away their lives or even waste their lives having people entertain them. In Israel this is less likely to be the case. People care. People are more serious. People are more concerned. People are more likely to want to make the most of every day. That means that the quality of life in Israel is much greater than that abroad. That quality is better because everybody wants to make sure that it's better. Everybody wants to make sure that they make the most of things.

Of course, these are generalizations. There are obviously very serious people in other countries and there are obviously jokers in Israel. However, after living in both countries, I have found that I can expect people living abroad to be jokers or to be less serious and I can expect the typical Israeli to be more serious and concerned about getting on with his life.

Of course there are other reasons why people in Israel may want to get on with their lives. After completing army service they are older than the typical American who can avoid the army. For this reason they may be more interested in getting started with their family and their lives. They will think about the serious things that they're going to do after completing the army when they are already 21 or older. This is not the case in other countries in which it is possible to drag out this period of time in which you have to think about your future and once you're in a mindset of dragging it out it can actually drag out quite endlessly. The result is that although Israelis get a later start with their lives, even get a later start going to college, I have found among my friends that many of them are much more serious and concerned and interested in getting busy with their lives than the casual person from another country who has a mindset of not having any deadline or of not rushing into things. That does not mean again also that the Israelis rush into things, but they feel more of a sense of urgency about doing things that relate to the rest of their lives.

Where do you want to go now?