The news out of Israel can often focus on the sad — and understandably so. But as a pleasant surprise recently reminded me, there’s also plenty cause for optimism in the Jewish state.
I explored this in my Shabbat column in Israel Hayom, an excerpt of which is below. You can read it on Israel Hayom’s website here.
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A few months ago, I received the message every Israeli dreads: your passport is about to expire. And right on its heels: your ID card needs replacing too. The horror stories about chaos at the Population and Immigration Authority offices were fresh in memory, including the impression that to get an appointment you’d have to book two years in advance in Taybeh, and only on a full-moon night.
So, I cleared an afternoon while the kids were at summer camp, and booked an appointment for late August in Mevasseret Zion. It was set for 15:06, a sad Israeli joke about punctuality in a place where a one-hour delay isn’t even upsetting. To my astonishment, at exactly 15:06 I was already sitting in front of a polite, efficient clerk. Four minutes later I was out, with a promise that within six weeks the passport and ID would arrive by mail.
Both the Population and Immigration Authority and the postal service, what could possibly go wrong? Never mind that I was supposed to fly six weeks later. In the end: just a week and a half later, the new passport and ID were delivered straight to my door. I don’t know who deserves credit for the reform in the Population Authority, but kudos to them.
Less credit goes to us, the press. What makes us report only bad news, and when things improve, forget it all? And no, this isn’t about portraying Netanyahu’s government negatively. After COVID, massive queues developed at Ben Gurion Airport, and were widely reported. Six months later, the Airports Authority and Transport Ministry recruited staff and solved it — and poof, zero coverage.
They say, “no news is good news,” but in truth, “good news is no news.” That’s why two huge achievements of the past year virtually disappeared from the radar: the brilliant victory over Hezbollah in the winter, and the stunning success against Iran in the summer. That’s the nature of journalism, and human nature too: to get used to the good and complain about the bad. But sometimes it goes too far.
I’ve long noticed that the most violent online reactions don’t come after expressing support for Netanyahu’s positions, but after posting something optimistic. No wonder the fiercest ridicule was reserved for Sasson Shaulov’s viral song that declared everything will only get “even better.” How dare he celebrate and rejoice when there is sorrow all around? Some radio hosts even seemed to prefer playing on loop the Otzma Yehudit jingle. Nevertheless, Shaulov’s song was just declared Song of the Year by Ynet and Galgalatz radio. For the Israeli public, despite everything — not all is bad, and some things are getting even better.
