Scary Things in Israel

In our apartment hunting excursions we found a place that we liked, but was too small.  The owner showed where the bomb shelter was, and sadly told us rooms like that are needed in Israel.  It was padlocked and he explained another tenant had the key.  They had to start locking the shelter because the tenants were using it as a storage place.

Every day we hear military aircraft flying overhead.  David said they're probably monitoring Lebanon which is approximately 20 miles north of Haifa.  I asked if Lebanon would shoot them down and he said the jets fly too high, but you bet your bottom dollar Israel is keeping track of what's going on in its neighboring countries.  I said, we probably don't have to worry as long as they are flying during the day.  Ever since I've said that, we've heard the planes going over at night.

Today Israel has been accused by Iran of killing one of their nuclear scientists, and all day and all this evening we are hearing even more jets flying overhead.

But so far that hasn't been as scary as crossing the street.

The right-of-way goes as follows:  emergency vehicles, pedestrians, buses, all other vehicles.  Drivers go very fast, and although some streets have speed limit signs they are largely ignored.  An American couple took us home from shul last Friday and she drove at a normal, careful speed.  People behind her were honking and irritated.  There are cross-walks and pedestrians simply step out in front of oncoming traffic and they slam to a halt.  It's kind of scary doing that, but the other option would be to stand on the street corner all day and never go anywhere.

Busy streets have walk lights:  a green person means go, and a red person means stop.  That makes walking across a lot easier.  In the US, the walk signal is all the way across the street, so when it's green you go all the way across.  In Haifa, the walk signals are also in the middle of the street on the median.  So you wait for the first green signal to go to the middle of the street and wait for the second green signal to finish crossing.  The walk signal might be green across the street, but red in the middle.  The problem is, David and I are so accustomed to looking at the signal all the way across the street, sometimes we forget that the walk signal in the center of the street is red and on occasion have stepped out into the street only to jump back onto the sidewalk to avoid being mowed down by an oncoming car.

But that's not as scary as the cell phone.  You can't exist in Israel without one.  We had hoped to use Skype for our calling needs, and still have it for US calls, but it wasn't working for the apartment hunting in Haifa.  Our American cell phones didn't work here, so we had to go and purchase a new phone.  We did some comparison shopping.

One vendor, recommended to us by our project coordinator was pushing a cell phone for 400 shekels.  We decided to pass, but came back a few days later ready to buy it.  He didn't remember us, and the price went up 50 shekels, so we went to the Grand Canyon Mall and talked to some vendors there.  We found a plan that hopefully will work, and are paying 1/2 shekel a minute for outgoing calls.  In Israel, you are only charged for outgoing phone calls.  If someone calls you, it's on their dime (I mean shekel), not ours.

Okay, the cell phone isn't scary.  It was the contract David had to sign in order to get on this plan.  He signed his name on a contract written in Hebrew 17 times.  What he was told and what he signed could be completely different things.  Israeli doesn't have consumer protection laws like in the US.  We have found that banks and other institutions like to shekel and argot people to death.  If, G-d forbid, he signed something that has a lot of hidden fees and costs, the cell phone company could do more than garnish his pay or take money from his bank account.  The cell phone company could get a judgment against him that would put out a warrant for his arrest, not allow him to leave the country and send him in jail.  Yes, Israel has a debtor's prison.

David has read other blogs about people getting into financial trouble in Israel because they didn't know what they signed.  One person's bill turned out to be five times higher than expected and he felt cheated. He didn't want to pay the extra money and hired an attorney to help out, and basically the attorney said go ahead and pay what they say you owe.  Buyer beware!