Entry 2:

       Being in Tel Aviv reminds me again of how inadequate the conventional measurements of per capita income and per capita consumption are as indicators of the quality of life in different places. Perhaps because I have a great view of the Mediterranean from my hotel, it seems to me that being on the sea must do much to enhance the quality of life of those who live here. Some of the value of that is captured in the incomes of the seaside hotels. But the pleasure of the residents whom I see, even in March--sitting on the beach, sailing, wind surfing, or just looking--is not.
       On the other hand, Tel Aviv seems lacking in grand monuments. Adam Smith said that one of the benefits of the wealth of a nation was the presence of grand monuments that the population could enjoy. I suppose that Buckingham Palace, the Place de la Concorde, and St. Peter's are examples. But in general such monuments are the result of a nation's wealth in the past, not of its current income. Tel Aviv's high income is recent and has not left it with many grand monuments.
       Jerusalem is a different story. It was relatively wealthy in ancient times. But the main monument in Jerusalem is the one that is no longer there, the Temple.
       There are people who try to supplement measures of income with other measures of welfare. But the people who do this, it seems to me, must be very puritanical. They measure life expectancy and smog and illiteracy. You get no points for the pleasure of life. That would be hard to measure, of course, but that only means that the available standards miss a lot.

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       The unemployment rate in Israel is about 8 percent and rising. (I have been told that if the men studying in the yeshivas [religious schools] were counted as unemployed, the figure would be over 10 percent.) Despite this unemployment, Israel imports significant "guest workers" from abroad. I am told that they do work that Israelis will not do--in construction or in restaurant kitchens, for example. But that means only that Israelis will not do such work at the rate of pay at which foreigners can be brought to do it. Formerly much of such work was done by Palestinians, who are now allowed into Israel in reduced numbers. The unemployment compensation system reduces the need for Israelis to take such work. Israel has some of the European labor problem. Israeli employers apply for permission to import workers, and they engage agents abroad to find the people they want. Mainly the workers come from Romania, Thailand, and China. The Romanians are especially valuable, because many of them can communicate, at least to some degree, with the Russian émigrés. Many of the Thais speak English. What the Chinese do, I don't know.
       The restaurant in the hotel where I am staying has two menus, both meatless. One is, I suppose, European, and the other contains Thai food. Both menus are cooked by the same Thai chefs.

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       There is an old joke that has as its punch line that an Israeli does not understand the phrase "excuse me." There may be something to that, but I find the Israelis to be helpful and considerate, even if they do not use the phrases we are used to. I refer not only to the economists with whom I have some contact but also to people on the street from whom I ask directions, and to the service people in hotels and restaurants. The service people are neither obsequious nor arrogant, but behave as friendly equals. In most places you can't tell the difference between the waiters and the patrons by clothing or manner.
       I was in a good seafood restaurant and about to order my usual--salmon--when the waitress told me of the glories of their sea bass. So, I ordered that. But a little later she came back with a dish of salmon. When I said that I hadn't ordered it, she explained that they were out of sea bass. My first thought was that she was nervy and should have consulted me. But then I realized that she was behaving like a mother, giving me what she thought I would want.
       In general, I have the feeling that Israel is a classless society, or nearly so. There are distinctions within the population but no deference to wealth, position, or family. (How could there be deference to family when we are all descendants of Abraham?) Perhaps this lack of deference has something to do with not knowing the expression "excuse me."

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       In a foreign hotel room you really appreciate how dumb most television is. You are alone and eager for diversion, so you spend two or three minutes looking at programs to which you would not have given an instant at home. And in those two or three minutes you understand why you would not have given them an instant at home. Also, when the program is in a foreign language--and here I get programs in Hebrew, Arabic, French, German, Russian, Spanish, whatever they speak in India, and BBC English--you peer especially hard at the screen trying to figure out what is going on, until you realize that nothing is going on.
       Foreign television is big on quiz shows. I have seen Jeopardy in German and a variety of other quizzes in other languages. They are lacking only Win Ben Stein's Money in Hebrew. I have also seen knockoffs of the old Phil Donahue show in Russian and other languages. The audiences seem to have learned how to react by watching American TV.

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       Israel has the second highest number of cell phones per capita in the world. The first, you may be surprised to learn, is Sweden. I always think of the Swedes as taciturn. I can't imagine Greta Garbo with a cell phone, but perhaps as Ninotchka she would have used one. I was told the reason for Sweden's No. 1 position is that one of the world's leading manufacturers of such phones is in Sweden. (If true, that would be an example of Say's law, which says that supply creates its own demand.) But the high ranking of the Israelis is no surprise. They have always had a great respect for verbal communication, and the cell phone multiplies the number of conditions in which they can communicate. It is almost always men, incidentally, that I see walking around with their left hands up to their ears. I have seen only a few women with cell phones.

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       The only comment I have heard here about Topic A is from an Israeli who feared that President Clinton's woman problems were diverting him from taking a strong hand in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian problem. I replied, naively, that Clinton needed a diversion. He explained that Clinton needs a neat patriotic diversion like an airstrike on Iraq, not a plunge into Mideast politics. I guess he's right.