# 212 – Israeli Drivers

September 4, 2012

So I did a u-turn. So what…

As usual, before I had a chance to complete the turn,. the van driver cut in front of me. Typical. The van was not white, but they really do all behave like that.

Then, as I attempted again to complete the turn, this woman also wanted to refuse to let me in. Well, this time I put my foot down. Literally. I left her no choice – and gave the usual hand signals that say: What is wrong with you, lady? I’m a decent person, making my little u-turn, and you’re on some mission to be nasty to somebody. Why pick on me?

Well, I then followed the ugly van and, at the next lights, had the opportunity to go into the inside lane and stopped next to him..

From up there he smiled down at me. Not a nasty smile, but he certainly knew what he had done, and that I was the one he had done it to.

I ‘rolled down my window’ (what is the correct term, now that we have buttons…’lowered’?) and he did the same.

“You’re obviously not English”, I said (in Hebrew) as friendly as I could.

He caught on immediately. “Hey! The guy on the phone is an Englishman”, he exclaimed, indicating the hands-free phone in front of him.

“Does he drive like an Englishman?”, I had to ask.

“Hey, you’re in Israel. No one drives like an Englishman here. Only frierim [suckers]”.

And with that, he actually waved nicely and sped off on his aggressive way.

Stephen