Three years is supposedly a milestone that, if reached, bodes well for a new immigrant's potential for long-term survival. Five years is the next milestone. Although numbers and dates find significance with me, I can't say for certain I will be here another two years. For now I am greatly enjoying my life in the holy land. I can honestly say that I've worked long and hard - through many ups and downs - to construct a full and fulfilling life - a better life than I could have for myself anywhere else in the world (including New York or Las Vegas).

That is saying a lot. I had some wonderful experiences before leaving New York but in my three years here I've set up an apartment, completed military service, received a Master's degree, rose to the highest position I could in one company, am now quickly and impressively making my mark in a new company and I've even become some sort of "go-to figure" for non-ultra-orthodox, 20-something year old, "western" aliyah.

Maybe I'm nothing more than a somewhat-big fish in the little pond of Israel, whereas in NY I'd be a small fish in a huge pond, but this pond is so much more important and special than any other one. So I don't care. And there's still so much more to do. Ultimately, I like big ideas, big visions, affecting big change and making big impacts. So look out, because I have some cool things up my Zionist sleeves that will hopefully fit very nicely into my "The Big Five" blog posting.

A major theme of my life here revolves around Zionism and there's much I'd like to do in furtherance of that idea. My idealism is as strong as ever and I try to always present the best parts of Israel to those who write me or come to visit. The dream of a Jewish state in our historic homeland is powerful. What modern-day Israelis have "done with the place" isn't necessarily awesome. But its not terrible. The dream of Zionism is not easy to fulfil and there's still a long way to go: from teaching Israelis to clean up after their dogs and stand in a proper line when buying popcorn at movie theaters, to being nicer global citizens and less suspicious of everyone.

When planning to move, and even after getting here, it took me more than six months to be fully forthright with my idealism as the main motivation. I suppose my three year anniversary is as good a time as any to make another declaration that perhaps was too profound to admit earlier.

The dream of Zionism inspired my move, that idealism continues to sustain me and my major goal for staying and succeeding is to positively affect Israeli culture. To Israelis, Zionism is not cool. Zionism is something to mock. They look around, see the corrupt politicians, the scorn of countless countries, troubles left and right, and can't possibly comprehend someone embracing Zionism as a motivation for anything. Very few Israelis even know that the plain white building on Rothschild Boulevard is Independence Hall, where David Ben Gurion fulfilled our 2000 year dream for a re-established homeland.

Most Israelis dream of moving to New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Australia or England. They finish the army, work for a few months, travel the world, then perhaps do a first degree and then try to get the hell out. Its a serious problem. Zionism is not cool. Very few talk positively about their country and the dream that gave birth to it. Most react with anything from mistrust to shock when encountering me and my other non-ultra-orthodox, 20-something year old, "western" immigrants. We didn't flee persecution or come for the few thousand dollars given to new immigrants. We came because we wanted to be a part of this great dream and do our part.

I can't accurately convey how vexing that is for the average Israeli. Most of what they think about is how bad everything here is. But that's not what we see. And I want them to see it too! It isn't easy but every now and then an Israeli opens his or her mind and eyes to our stories and how we see Israel. In these cases they are grateful for the experience and perhaps feel a little less cynical about their life here.

Until we're able to affect more Israelis in this way, the country will continue to be dominated by the "friar culture" (as I like to call it). A "friar" in Yiddish is a slang expression for a fool, someone easy to take advantage of. I believe that all of Israeli culture is based on this idea - how not to be a friar yourself and how to maximally take advantage of others. Israelis do the worst thing themselves and then complain vociferously when that same thing is done to them.

They will be the most selfish drivers but then yell and honk like madmen if someone else does the same. They'll cut in line to buy popcorn and then yell at someone else for doing the same. They'll say the whole world is against them and then fuel that fire by acting solely in their self-interest.

I'll explain that phenomenon by making a very strong statement, unlike I'm used to doing on the blog. All of that is because Israelis have absolutely no concept of long-term planning, thinking or strategizing. They live only for the here and now and can't conceive that tomorrow will come. That's why there's an extremely high occurrence of traffic accidents, the girls are all bitches, the guys are all assholes, everyone is in major debt, don't clean up after their dogs and set up procedures, processes, an entire economy and a whole country without any attempt at efficiency, scalability or reliability.

But we can help. We can be model citizens. We can drive more maturely, clean up after our animals, not cut in line, say thank you and please and sorry and complain with etiquette when wronged.

A pipe dream? Perhaps. But I like a challenge. Help me.