Hey, it looks like they hired my in-laws from Alberta to work as security guards at Ben-Gurion airport. I didn't know they were Jewish.
To summarize the story (if you are too lazy to click the link), a female journalist was traveling to Israel and the security guards found some pics on the laptop that were sorta anti-Israeli. So, taking no chances, they confiscated it and blew it up real good.. It really is a shame. I mean, they shot up a Mac. If it was a Dell or a Sony, I'm sure nobody would have cared.
In all my years of business, I enjoyed traveling to Israel the best. The breakfast buffets at the Daniel were just outstanding. Both of the hotels in Herzliya have private beaches to the Mediterranean so after a dip in the outdoor swimming pool you can walk barefoot in the sand and feel like you're king of the world.
I was able to wangle two business trips on the company dime back in 2003-2004 to some work with the Israelis Creoites on the Prinergy to Lotum Quantum connectivity package. At that the US State department, in its infinite wisdom (stupidity) has declared Israel to be a war zone so it was a complete pain in the butt to get insurance to travel there. Needless to say, it was safer to walk around Herzliya at night than in a lot of US cities. Well okay, until you tried to cross a road on foot. Israeli drivers tend to be a bit, um, aggressive.
I found Israelis to be pretty easy to get along with. No seriously. I have worked with French, Belgians, Germans, Italians, Swedish, English, West Coast American, East Coast Americans, Australians, and Chinese and found the Israelis to be the easy to do business with. They are sorta like Australians with a European flavor, pretty blunt but can't help telling you the truth even if it hurts. And they can get pretty friendly AFTER they convince themselves that you're not out to screw them.
If you need to remote manage a software development project, I would say Israel is one of the best countries to go to. With a lot of other culture/countries, you've always go to deal with the "loss of face" problem if something starts to go wrong. You know, the schedule is slipping but they don't want to tell you so you gotta sit there on the phone 3000 miles away and guess-estimate just how many weeks you're going to be late. When you're dealing with the Israelis they don't have any problem in telling you how late you are going to be and they will even tell you how far your management head is up your management ass, if they like you enough. Such honesty is so useful when you are managing a software project.
Reminder to myself. Next time I get to travel to Israel, take a laptop that's been bought off Craigslist. Just in case.
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