Four Months in Israel. December 30 – April 30
Four months ago today, (December 30, 2025) I flew out of LAX and made Aliyah to Israel.
On Friday May 1, I am finally moving into my new/permanent apartment. My shipment has been in storage for a month and will be delivered on Sunday May 3.
I am very excited for this next step which includes having my real bed set up, having my stereo system and CD collection, having my computer set up again as well as a TV and my kitchen equipment. I am also scheduled to have WiFi installed in my apartment on Sunday. My new apartment is in a lovely neighborhood of Zichron called Neve Remez
which includes a gate (open from sunup to sundown) into the back of the 450-acre Ramat HaNadiv nature reserve. https://www.ramat-hanadiv.org.il/
My expectation/hope will be to take Jerry for a walk in the nature reserve every morning before it gets too hot.
In truth, it has taken me longer than I anticipated to get settled into an apartment, but I am very happy with where I am ending up. I have already purchased a 2023 Corolla Hybrid to get me around town and to the beach with Jerry (which is only fifteen minutes away) and to take short getaways to enjoy Tel Aviv (about an hour away) and to Jerusalem (about an hour and a half away).
I have just signed up for an Ulpan class for seniors. Ulpan (for those of you not familiar) is an intensive school for teaching Hebrew to adult immigrants focusing on speaking, reading and comprehension. The program is sponsored by the Israeli government to aid in the absorption of new immigrants into Israeli society. This class will be twice a week for four hours each for about ten months.
What more can I say. I won’t lie. It hasn’t been easy but if still feels absolutely worth the effort. That is in part because of my feeling of belonging here, combined with my continued alienation from the left in the United States.
The economy in Israel is strong and consequently my money which is in dollars, is not going as far as I had hoped. Almost everything that I spend money on is more expensive than it was for me back in Oregon except for health care. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that internet and cell phone is significantly cheaper than what I was paying. Of course, I did not come here for the health care or the cost of living. I came here for the quality of life.
I am very excited to be able to participate in the upcoming elections.
The Israeli electoral system if of course different than what exists in the United States.
First of all, by law parliamentary elections are not on the same set date every 2 or 4 years.
Elections are held no more than 4 years after the date of the last election. However snap elections can be held either if the majority collapses and the opposition wins a vote calling for new elections or if the majority calls an election (usually thinking that they are at a position of strength). That being said there will be a new election no later than October, 2026. My understanding is that every citizen is automatically registered to vote and that it is generally all in person on the same day throughout the country. Citizens vote for parties (not individuals) and parties put up “slates” of candidates indicating the order in which members will get seated in the Knesset depending on how many seats the party wins. There is an electoral threshold of 3.25 percent so votes for parties that do not meet the threshold do not count. The seats in the Knesset are ultimately distributed based on a nationwide proportional representation. My understanding is that the leader of the party that gets the most seats in the new Knesset is given the first chance to build a coalition government of smaller parties that will form a new majority.
I am starting with a position of intending to narrow my choices to parties that pledge that they will not participate in a coalition that includes Itamar Ben Gvir or Bezalel Smotrich the two extremists who seemed to be controlling policy in the current Netanyahu government. Beyond that there is inevitably a last-minute calculation that involves guessing who will meet threshold (so as to not waste my vote) and then the specific policies and personalities involved.