lost in translation / לוסט עין טראנסלאישון

After spending some time getting acclimated to Israel and the VC community, I have some real projects to work on, which is why I'm posting now. Clearly, getting things done requires having something else on which to procrastinate.

I've been in Israel two weeks, officially the longest amount of time I've spent in one place outside of the U.S. I don't know the language; this becomes rapidly evident during any conversation lasting more than 15 seconds. My Hebrew is functional enough to tell the rare specimen -- an Israeli who truly speaks no English, or is stubborn enough to pretend not to know any -- that I don't speak Hebrew. In all cases (except one), everyone's Hebrew is far superior to mine, and in many cases, their English is nearly on par with mine. (The one time, I asked a question in Hebrew and heard in response, to my delight, "I only speak English and Russian.")

My experiences have been very diverse already. I've attended a wedding, gone to the beach, sat in the 10th row at a Shlomo Artzi concert, and watched a soccer game between Real Madrid and a mixed Israeli-Palestinian "Peace Team". (To accurately complete the metaphor, Peace lost 8-0.)

As a result of my extensive (two-week) tenure here, I feel well-qualified to offer my expert opinion that life here is not half as stressful as Israelis seem to think. (They also think living in the States is a panacea for life's troubles. The grass is always greener...) Here are some other things I don't like about Israelis:

• Littering. Israelis like to talk about how beautiful the country is, and they're absolutely, 100% right. So why the hell doesn't anyone seem to have a problem with throwing their cigarette butts, glass bottles, and gum wrappers on the ground?
  
• Smoking. I guess the U.S. is the sole exception in the world, but to anyone with policy-making ability who's listening, trust me: the smoking ban in the States makes it much more likely that I will go out to a bar or restaurant and spend more time and money there. Smoking is costly, unhealthy, and is a fundamental violation of non-smokers' rights to life.
  
• Religious fundamentalism. Israel is a Jewish state, and that seems to attract the looniest right-wing radicals around. While they seem to spend most of their time in Jerusalem, they exert significant influence on the government and are an embarrassment to an otherwise rational, moderate society.
  
• Racism. This one will surely be disputed, but many Israelis rival the most avid anti-semites in their closed-minded cross-cultural perceptions and opinions. Dark skin is associated with inferiority -- even among Jews -- and anyone darker than ivory is labeled "black," often pejoratively. When I mentioned to one Israeli that my baby sister attends school in Georgia, she remarked, absent any other context, that "there are many negroes there." Additionally, resentment toward Arabs is insidious and prevalent. I don't imagine the situation is comparable to the sort of formalized hate training many Arabs receive, and I don't presume to fully understand the root causes that underly of this mindset. However, it seems clear to me that Israelis are a great people, and as such they must take the lead in breaking this cycle of mutual animosity and find ways to increase trust and common understanding.

Other than these issues, though, everything else about this place seems pretty damn amazing.