Friends in the U.S. are consistently amazed by Israelis’ “fortitude” (in Hebrew: “Khosen”). Despite having to deal with periodic but incessant warfare – especially these past few years – Israelis keep on plugging and living life (almost) to the full. Indeed, this last mini-war with Iran and Hezbollah saw something that leaves people overseas dumbfounded: when war breaks out, Israelis might be the only citizens in the world who desperately try to get back into the country instead of fleeing to avoid the mayhem. What accounts for such fortitude?

Sometimes the most banal statistic can tell you a lot about a society and its fundamental values. Take moving from one home to another. After seeing an interesting U.S. statistic, I wanted to find the same stat in Israel but the country’s Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t provide this in the same way. So I asked Google AI (Gemini) and received this answer: “While there is no direct “lifetime move” counter for Israel like the U.S. Census Bureau’s estimate, comparing residential data reveals that Americans move significantly more often than Israelis” (https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/heres-how-often-americans-move-and-how-much-theyre-spending – 11.7 times in the U.S. to approximately 4-6 times in Israel). There are several reasons for that (e.g., higher home affordability; a more flexible labor market; etc.), but I think that “sociology” explains this better than any economic factor – and it has significant societal consequences as well.

To understand........

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