It's Time To Be An Optimist For Israel

The present economic situation continues to be dismal in the United States. Meanwhile, things are looking up and hopeful in Israel.

For example, compare the following 2 news stories from this week. Zillow.com, a real estate website in the U.S., reported that the U.S. housing market is now worse than the 1929 depression.

Meanwhile, the Taub Center for Social Policy studies, published a study that the Israeli public's sense of well-being is at an all-time high.

An experience this week resonated tremendously within me, really bringing home this thought about how fortunate I am to have picked up and moved to Israel.

I was waiting for the bus by the Binyani Haumah alongside a throng of other stand-byers waiting for their own buses. 

A sight caught my attention in the horizon (picture at the bottom of this post), so I turned to the person closest to me, nodding to the distance.  "Ma?" snorted my neighbor, so I pointed again with a smile that flickered across my face, and asked in Hebrew, "Don't you see that amazing sight; it's so beautiful!"  He looked puzzled, and in hopelessness, I decided to look away instead of trying to explain to him what was going on in my head.  

But I was reminded of a chapter in  in the book, To Dwell In The Palace, which is a collection of essays addressed to religious Jews in the West concerning aliyah.

In one essay, "It Will Seem impossible" by Yisroel Amishav, the writer encourages the reader to discount "troubling reports" about the the economic and political situation here in the Land of Israel.  Instead, Amishav cajoles us to make our own independent assessments about what it's like in Israel.  

In Amishav's own words:

 "Have you, by any chance, been to visit the holiest city in the world lately.... If you had, you would have seen some puzzling sights.  You would have, if you looked up as you walked, seen more cranes than you could count."

Luckily, I had my iPod touch with me and was able to take a picture.  Here it is.  Click on it to see it enlarged, and to see even more cranes that are cut off from the picture below.