I lived in yehuda and shomron mostly, 6 months in gush katif, 3.5 years jerusalem total.
When I had my online business from Israel, I had nightmares always, a broken laptop charger ? 100+ nis to fix the cord.. good luck buying another. The high cost of electronics there and pretty much everything else still pisses me off.
Something that is a 8$ uber in miami is a 150 shekel taxi ride in jerusalem
I detest that everything is a game with them, its dishonest to me that innocent tourists get ripped off and I hate the fight, its childish. I want a stupid taxi ride / air conditioner, give me a reasonable quote.
I dont know how stuff like online shopping has changed things, in my day the only place to pay decent prices on books was sefer vasefel on 2 yabetz.
But in my opinion, anything that is not mass market junk, is prohibitively expensive.
Fish is expensive like hell and you cant rely on it for sushi / gravlax mostly as they dont inspect for worms.
As
@hvaces42 said, the meat cuts are laughable. Sure you can go to butcher shops and have fresh cut meat to your liking but its expensive
Gas at 4$ a gallon, 17% VAT. and its endless.
I have my issues that extend far beyond the simple economics. The protektzia, the ineptness of the government and private sector, the cartel and monopolies of the private sector, mafia dominated control. Political system is a joke every one is fighting.. The chareidim dont work, the Chilonim I dunno..
America isnt perfect but after 7-9 years of Israel, ive come to appreciate America. 2nd amendment, Habous corpus, trial by a jury of your peers.. the constitution and the bill of rights.
I was in Gush Katif, I was in Amona. As they say about conservatives here, once you get arrested.. etc.
I love eretz yisrael with all my hear and soul. After watching 200+ get transported to the hospital at amona, i'm done with the state of israel. I still remember the head of MDA jerusalem screaming at this high ranking general that MDA has no more available ambulances in the region