Israeli supermarkets have certainly changed over the past decade when they were poorly lit and stocked; the merchandise seemed a bit suspect, underfresh or overfrozen; and generally third world. Now the selection is almost as vast as my local Walgreens. I don't understand why, with the few million Israeli customers, so many manufacturers have repackaged their brands especially for this (tiny) market.
Just part of the inexorable march of globalism, I suppose.

We always ate simple fresh food in Israel: vegetables straight off the vine, yogurt, fresh bread, very little meat. Now for the first time, I noticed lots of fast food, pre-packaged meals, and fat Israelis. Probably another decree by the endomorphic Sharon.

Jerusalem has many walls, some millennia old, and now the Israelis are constructing a new one, the Geder, which snakes across the landscape and prevents people from becoming suicide bombers, earning a living, or freely visiting their friends and family. Hard to believe it will last thousands of years and become the subject of picture postcards.

The new wall detours traffic and inconveniences everyone in Israel, forcing people to line up at endless checkpoints. Some say it is temporary (it is very tall, cement, and looks like the Berlin Wall which lasted thirty odd years) and others say it is just the new border (though it bifurcates towns and carves bits of them into landlocked islands).
I walked down to Abu Tor, an Arab town I've been to many times, and it felt sullen and dangerous, like an ancient family pet turned senile. The wall was still being built, another of Jerusalem's endless construction sites. The parts I saw didn't bear any graffiti so far, as if the wall's sheer presence eliminates the need to say any more.
It makes me feel bad for everyone in Israel — right, left, Arab and Jew — that things have finally come to this.