levi eshkol with dayan and rabin supporting initiated war to save israel from the enemies. Begin hit osiraq and lebanon. Shamir resisted massive concessions. Yet peres is such a weakling, he ran from lebanon at the first sign of casualties. Basrak. Forget about him. Olmert-ht ebiggest coward to ever hit the jews. And bibi, a soldier, I am beginning to conclude he was a lousy soldier who has some of olmert's qualities-he runs around crying and begging the world to take down iran. Winograd who gave olmert a way out and for that his final years will not be good, rightly said, if you plan to attack, set the plan and shut the hell up in the meantime which I agree with. Yet bibi cries on and on. So don't attack. Obama will not attack period. So iran will get nuclear weapons. We have seen bibi for over 17 years with this on and off and beggging and he probably doesn't know he is doing its. Shut the hell up already, rush more iron domes to the field, replace barak with yaalon and bring in lieberman, begin, merridor to the decision because you cannot make it yourself, no way!!

nothing to offer as guides.

You want a voice then come back. You want to change a country you are not willing to come to and invest in? Well than sorry about your luck. Decisions in Israel are made by people who live here.

The author's high-tech training in the IDF came at the expense of the taxpayers of Israel, including plenty of haredim. Absent that training, he couldn't get a resident permit in Vancouver.

Israel will not survive without becoming a modern progressive state. Religion is a killer. Soon there will not remain enough people willing to defend Israel. Same as 2,000 years ago, be'rtzinut.

Not a word about the constant threat of Arab terror in Israel. Much tax revenue is used to fight terror. The US State Department has issued an advisory about travel to Israel, because of frequent Arab attacks on motorists and on non-Arabs everywhere, particularly in Jerusalem. Jewish cities, including Tel Aviv, have been invaded by tens of thousands of Africans, who frequently engage in crime. But Mr Shabtay's concern is taxes.

Life if North America is void of soul. It is a hollow shell. I live in Toronto (I am secular), and would love to get up and move to Israel. There is no place in the world better for raising children than Israel. The author should ask himself the following (the answer should inform you if truth): if your child was lost in a mall, would you feel better knowing he is lost in a mall in Israel, or a mall in Vancover? Also, do single women jog alone at night in Vancover as they do in Israeli cities?

where u live where is comfortable is Ur country.

I have never been to Vancouver but the pictures on the internet are enough to put me off for good.The freezing weather in the winter is enough to dull one body and brain and drastically reduce quality of life.As the writer admits he misses his family and Israel.He does not tell us what percentage tax he is paying in Canada and what is he getting for it.Wonder why?

and its inhabitants are boring.

But there is only one Jewish state, so we need to live in it and try to fix it.

The only reason to not live here is the stupid way the elite and its media slave boys keep on publishing the same old boring proganda crap. To promote their failed form of Zionism, which includes our friend Bibi. Besides that am Israel is living and growing despite your armchair negativity and whining. So stay were you are and enjoy your Galuth. It is not that you left Israel out of free choice, but that the land spit you out.

Dear Isaak,stop complaining.If you feel so strongly about Israel (which you should ) then you should return and use your knowledge to make a better life here.Giving up is tantamount to abandoning our ancestral home.As for the religious well it's a Jewish country and maybe you'll also become religious Norman Atlit

Whether you zionistic/religious talkbackers like it or not - Israel needs it seculars and you'd better listen to them. Look around at your neighbors and you see what happens with ultrareligious societies. Also, to the people that tell the writer to come back and change the system - it is not easy when the parlamentary system is dead locked.

I understand the points that you make regarding the difficulty of life in Israel. However, you must keep in mind that likely no Jew that ever came to Israel from the West came there because it was a better place in a materialistic way. In fact, the first zionists came from civilized countries to a desert. Because they didn't want to live a comfortable life in strange countries, but a safe life in their own country. I am currently studying in The Netherlands, and yes, life is great here. I can get a job with a nice salary and live the rest of my life in peace and stability here. Yet, I know that as soon as I graduate, I will be on the first plane to Israel, will most likely have to join the IDF and start from the ground up in Israel. Why? Because of the feeling I get when I land in Ben-Gurion, when I walk the streets of any given Israeli city and the sadness I feel when I am at Ben Gurion again to leave. You write that you experience a similar feeling, but I doubt that you do. Because if you would, you wouldn't have written this article and would have come to Israel and tried to change the country with the many Israelis who believe the same as you do (the social justice movement). Since you don't have this powerful feeling, I agree that you should stay in Vancouver and live your life, but please don't blame these things on Netanyahu or Israel.

to work on making it better. You have no right standing outside and telling us how bad it is. We who care live here and try to make a difference.

And he's a poor sick puppy who can't give up the money!... "The best part of his nonsense is that the Israeli will suffer, "just as long as he knows the Palestinians are suffering too...but there's no money in it.... Very telling as a confession...Seems like the poor boy is still having nostalgia for the IDF... .. TATA

helps to have some hand to hand training at nights, unlike canada where we dont have conscription...and i also oppose your line of thought on this one...if my child is lost in israel or in canada im scared as heck...thanks for being a great voice of our country though feel free to leave if were that bad :) we obviously aren't cause your messaging from Toronto and not beit shemesh or T.A nice try though :)

Complaining about Israel having too many Arabs or Hareidim is anything but liberal and enlightened. Part of the social contract is that those with income will support via taxes the weaker elements of society.

Reading the comments on this website is like looking at a load of ostriches with their heads buried in the sand unable to see what is happening. I am sure that the religious extremists among us are delighted that another non-religious person has left the country. But at the same time they are unable to understand that it is because he like many of us have become alientated by their extremism, which is dividing the Jewish people. They cannot see that just as he finds he has nothign in common with them, the rest of the world sees less and less in common with us and that we are on a slippery slope to becomeing a pariah country To which they reply that it does not matter what the goyim say - except it does because they are our trading partners and without them we have no economy. If Israel is not a country in which all Jews feel comfortable and feel that they are wanted and have a home we have no future - none of us - not the secular who pay for everything or the ultra-orthodix who pay for nothing.

i pity you mr. isaac! you must love your country no matter what!

Canada is a very safe country. I live here and used to live in Israel. Regarding where would I feel safer - I would feel safer in Canada. No question about that. And if my child is lost in a mall in any Canadian city - I would feel safer as opposed he would be lost in Jaffa, Ramle, Nazareth or Jerusalem - for obvious reasons. Israel has its own advantages and strong points - but personal safety is not one of them.

Unbelievable total destruction of a country by third world genre of politicians/crooks.

Nobody wrote here, that hitec workers are highest payed here in Israel. They live like kings. You can even afford yourself to visit Vancoover))

Never, ever thought I'd say this, but you are so filled with hate for a segment of the Jewish people that it's much better that you're in Canada. Name me 3 secular organizations that do the kind of chesed done by Yad Sara, Ezer M'Tzion, Ezra U'Marpeh, Chai Lifeline, Yad Malca, Em HaBanim Semaicha, Yad Ezra V'Shulamit, Or Meir V'Bracha, Yad Eleazer in Israel...the list is too long too mention. But all you see is negative, hate. Stay where you are and leave all the good Jews in Israel - all kinds- secular, hareidi, dati-leumi, traditional - alone. In spite of our differences, we love each other as a family. Families sometimes fight, sometimes disagree, but we are still a family. You thankfully, are not part of it.

i read with interest your letter. i feel that it is a kind of self-justification toward your family and friends, to give them some reason why you don't live in israel, our country for better or worse. does a true fan of a football club abandon it, if it drops to the bottem of the league by the end of the season? in my personal experience a person has to be kicked out of the country he or she believed to be their homeland in order to learn what being the citizen of a real homeland means. in all sincerity i wish you no such experience.

As someone who wanted to make aliyah and who has many friends who wanted to make aliyah I want to say that I hear a lot of these views and I know many of my friends feel them. You dont even discuss political discust re: the palestinian problem... this too is a harboring factor. To the Israelis reading - maybe take in and learn from this opinion rather than be demeaning and arrogant.

Havana, on the island of Cuba is on a continent?

Bibi came back here as this country provided him the best opportunity to succeed. Bibi is an insecure, shallow, self-serving individual who HAS NOT passed any legislation that actually improves the country as a whole. He spent his entire political career placating his "partners" in coalition. Look at your paycheck and see how much money comes out of it each month; look at the price of gas or food or anything else and now add 17% VAT on top of it. Bibi, put us in a fiscal hole so he could say he has the strongest coalition in Israeli history. He wants and needs people to like him, and so he forms his opinions based on those of people who can help him maintain his political strength. He never would have gotten this far in the US. So please don't kid yourself.

and do not insult the majority of us! A lot of us gave up much more than you. So please stop the self glorification and and self pity over a step you would never take due to, well let's be honest, GREED!