but why the picture of Haredim?

I could not fault a single word of this It is like my family, they are not perfect, never will be but they are my family

LEAVE as quickly as possible. there is no future here. why has ohlmert/barak.rabin sent their children away - and i m sure their money??????????

Great article! Finally someone is saying the truth that nothing will change here, we only have the same choices ever time for Prime Minister(either the one currently in power , or the one previously in power that we kicked out of office), so there is no real choice for quality leadership because the choices are all bad! The corruption that perminates all levels of government here is never going to change because the gov officials are happy and the public is afraid to do anything to stop it! Our schools are terrible, the water crisis will only get worse, yet the public sits back ignoring the problems just like our leadership does! Inorder for things to get better here the public must waken from its slumber and say "WE ARE TIRED OF THE SAME OLD LIES, CORRUPTION,and BUSINESS AS USUAL ATTITUDE OF OUR LEADERSHIP". We need to disband the entire Knesset and start over from scratch with new faces who have the interest of the people of Israel first not their own self serving interest! A GOV OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE IS WHAT IS NEEDED HERE!

Eretz Yisrael Niknis BeYisurin. No one said it would be easy, but there's no question that it's worth it. We've come a long way, and there's a long way still to go. But this is our home. Our beautiful Holy home. Instead of negativity, let's do all we can to make it better, and keep positive. Yesh tikva!

You are not safer elsewhere. It is natural for Israel to prepare for terror attacks in light of the threats being voiced against it in the past days. Israel would not stand for an attack on one of its missions or against Israeli citizens abroad. Past experience proves that Iran and its associates do not hesitate to operate against innocent civilians, and Israel is obligated to prepare for such possibility with a series of steps that would boost the level of readiness required to avert such attacks. We do not face only Iran and Hizbullah – we face Islam

we dont know what amazing blessings we do have. we are the first generation in two thousand years to have our own home. we have our own army and decide our own fate. my father, a deeply secular man, was a die-hard zionist simply because he would always say to skeptics "you dont know what it was like before there was a state!" thats the point, we have become used to israel being there. any of our ancestors would have given three out of four limbs to just spend one hour in the jewish homeland.. i am so grateful every day that i get up in the morning in our land and none of these issues can take that away. yes, the situation is not great, but its a whole lot better than living anywhere else in the world.

I made alya a few years ago. All questions raised by Shaked are legitimate ones but none of the many many israeli sabra co-citizens of mine I interact with seem to be displaying the level of pessimism of Shaked. I can only empathize with Shaked personal issues that seem to drive him to share his pessimism to his readers in the most unjewish attitude ever seen perhaps since jewsish history. I do hope his personal issues will be resolved. so far in israel I have only witnessed the following : respect, rule of law, friendship, care and help. much can be blamed on our polititians but certainly not more that can be adressed to politicians around the world including the so-called civlized western world. whatever can be said about olmert and his management of the country, what he mentioned a few month ago I choose to believe, accept as I cannot believe he lies on this statement. he said: "there are so many things I would like to share with my people to reassure them but I just can't" Shaked, itdoes not take 60 years for a country to assert its place in a globalized world like ours. It takes much longer and Israel is just starting to play a role on the international scene as a major player from all technology , military, diplomatic and financial perspectives. So please ... ksat savlanut .... What you see as Israel downfall or unsolvable dilema, is just the very beginning of Israel success with the jalousy and problems emanating from our ennemies. this success is ennsured by the immense courage and work from millions of israelis that wake up every morning to make sure our country only builds on from success to success. please do not demoralize your people so early in the morning with your somehow pessimistic views and binary options which in fact are the very same options facing each and every human being on this planet.

I shall stay, because I am too old to leave. But one child has left for good and the other child is disgusted and alienated by all that goes on here.

America? (Just an assumption you don't mean the FSU or any country east or south of here). You really believe it's any different there? Just horses of a different color. Bad education system there, too; poison in most of the food and water; corruption you can't even imagine having lived here; and yes - there is terrorism, it is just called other things. Or perhaps you meant Englanistan? Good luck with that. The "grass is greener" syndrome is deadly - fight it off and do the best you can with what you've got. It's pretty good here, believe me.

If you can show the moronic majority that they've been deluded in Madrid, Oslo, Annapolis etc. and get them to vote for those who will do what it takes to get rid of Israel's enemies (internal and on her borders) then there is still a chance of success. If you allow the moronic majority to go on in their moronic self-destructive ways then it's not if the end will come but when.

...and do something more than write defeatist tripe. Nothing changes for the Ronen Shaked's of the world. If the best he can do is type up this garbage, then he reaps what he sows. There are others of us in Israel who know that change will only come if we make it so. We know that if we leave it to others to decide for us, we're screwed. We know that being involved in the decision making process takes a lot of effort. We know that 20, 30 and 40 years ago Israel was a different place. We know that Israel has made fantastic progress over the last 60 years. We know that more progress won't come by bellyaching over the ills that ail us. We know that it's hard work to move forward. We know to file Ron Shaked's article under "g" for the pessimistic garbage that it is. We know that we'll roll up our sleeves tomorrow morning and keep working to make things better, and not stare at Shaked's words on the screen with a dumb look on our face.

As a jew i made aliah, although being a gay man and a jew i have experienced more hatred and intollerence here in Israel than anywhere else. In europe i was aware of anti semitism but nothing prepared me for the hatred and intollerence here in Israel towards my sexuality and this time it came from my fellow jews (SHAS). Which is ironic really when you consider that mixed with the ashes of 6,000 000 jews was the ashes of 500,000 gay men in the hollocaust.

I made alya a few years ago. All questions raised by Shaked are legitimate ones but none of the many many israeli sabra co-citizens of mine I interact with seem to be displaying the level of pessimism of Shaked. I can only empathize with Shaked personal issues that seem to drive him to share his pessimism to his readers in the most unjewish attitude ever seen perhaps since jewsish history. I do hope his personal issues will be resolved. so far in israel I have only witnessed the following : respect, rule of law, friendship, care and help. much can be blamed on our polititians but certainly not more that can be adressed to politicians around the world including the so-called civlized western world. whatever can be said about olmert and his management of the country, what he mentioned a few month ago I choose to believe, accept as I cannot believe he lies on this statement. he said: "there are so many things I would like to share with my people to reassure them but I just can't" Shaked, itdoes not take 60 years for a country to assert its place in a globalized world like ours. It takes much longer and Israel is just starting to play a role on the international scene as a major player from all technology , military, diplomatic and financial perspectives. So please ... ksat savlanut .... What you see as Israel downfall or unsolvable dilema, is just the very beginning of Israel success with the jalousy and problems emanating from our ennemies. this success is ennsured by the immense courage and work from millions of israelis that wake up every morning to make sure our country only builds on from success to success. please do not demoralize your people so early in the morning with your somehow pessimistic views and binary options which in fact are the very same options facing each and every human being on this planet.

Life here can become same old same old, but in the end, we have something going for ourselves. Take a break, book a last minute special to somewhere else, and Israel will seem fresh and new when you get back.

Mr.Raanan Shaked, when you make a statement that you know evrything about future, I need tell you that you 100% wrong. To many things depened on event we do not know and even have no hint of it. History is not a hysterical boy, history moves by her own speed and mood, but not as a magical performance. If your artical has very spesial meaning, to make people panic and suffer, you took absolutely right tune- no hope, no future, run or " we should go!!!" Sorry

finally someone says that stuff! i'm blown away by your article, i agree with all what u say. it´s just a matter of choice, either to stay or leave.

We love you! This is the greatest place in the whole wide world!! Just stay and get into how amazing this place is! Stroll thru the shuk with your lover (or your camera) and marvel over the exotic people and fruit. Walk along the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem... Go to an Ehud Banai concert and sing and dance along with Ehud and the fans who cross the whole spectrum of Israelis. Go see the beach at sunset....do the "stalbet"-- eat "avatiach" --Come on man, come to my house for a delicious and warm family traditional shabbat candlelit dinner. Smile and say "sabah elkhair" to the Arabs in your neighborhood. Come to a meeting of interfaith Jerusalem peacemakers tonight at Beit Nechemia in Abu Tor. Go float in the Dead Sea-- one of the wonders of the world-- the original health SPA. Explore Florentine-- drinking cool fresh Israeli rimon juice. People watch-- the gorgeous Israeli girls and women all around you-- the guys too! Be happy. Screw politics. Don't let that get in the way of YOUR SOUL and nature and beauty and wonder and glory! You've been tricked into thinking that stuff matters!STAY-- and open your eyes. STAY!!!!!!! We love you! ("I can't go on. I'll go on." - Samual Beckett)

As in; RUN FOR THE BORDER!!! Even if Israel continues as it is today, who wants to live there when there are so many better oppotunities out there, and so many countries out there where you do not have to hang your head in shame to be a citizen of. Any Israelis with any brains would actually already have sprinted to the border, but for those who are a wee bit slow. it may Jtake a kick in the head to open their eyes.

verbosity is like the sin of idolatory, I suggest you, your children and all those that agree with you, leave Israel immediately. You, like Olmert, are tired of winning. We have more top fear from your listless approach to Israel than from any of our EXTERNAL enemies. Your attitude is diseased and terminally fatal.

from year to year it seems like nothing changes. from 20-30 years, things are changing a lot.

Yesterday we had Lapid Junior ranting on about the resurrection of Shinui, (how appropriate on Easter Monday). Now we have another ranter going on about how we know this and how we know that. Someone please tell him Purim is over and to leave the drinks

If it's one thing that's always characterized Am Yisrael, it's hope. Hope in spite of everything. And yes, sometimes it's justified. Who would have thought a hundred years ago that there would even be a State of Israel to worry about? The Nazis, y'mak sh'mam, lost. The State of Israel was born. The War of Independence, the 6-day War, the Yom Kippur War - Israel is still doing well (although it could be doing better). Who are you to complain, who don't remember trying to unlock the bomb shelter in 1973 (only to be told only the landlord has the key, and he lives five miles away)? Israel will outlive you and all the other doomsayers.

Gee Judah thanks for all your comments on Ynet telling us how to run our lives here in Israel. Why dont you put your money where your mouth is and live in Israel and serve in the army ? If not then shut up !

I will sponsor you to get US citizenship! I havent read something as sad as this in a while.. life is just a comedy? a song by ehud banai? We have a messed up system because we have messed up people like you! You dont know or care.. you see nothing special about ERETZ and you so nothing about YISRAEL. Why dont you go to america ? my family has lived the since 1900.. they seem to be doing fine thank g-d... they are lawyers, doctors, stockbrokers etc.. Why throw in "ultra orthodox radicals" frankly i'm more sick of "far left anarchists" We are screwd because people like you, scratched their noses and drank coffee when we ran from gaza.. But you and the rest of the country do not care.. so leave.. please!

That is, unless you're turned on by the thoughts of nothing but McJobs for the kids, plus supersized mortgages.