A friend of mine has ended up being the unofficial support site of PayPal in Israel. And by support it means a chance for a Jew to chat with an Israeli Arab businessman from another part of the country. And her experience matches mine: we get along just fine and we all face the same sort of business challenges in this country. Which we share, without apartheid by the way.
Miriam Schwab (who has a great web design and building company, Illuminea, if you need such services) said:
PayPal Israel has such bad support that a few blog posts on our site with tips for Israeli PayPal users rank higher than their site does. We rank so high that we get calls every second day from people who need PayPal support, and every time I have to let them down by telling them that no, we are not PayPal, and yes, they have a phone number for support, but no, it doesn’t work, so good luck.
But sometime these calls end up being pretty interesting. Today an Arab from the North called. He was disappointed when I told him we’re not PayPal, but then we started shmoozing about his business and my business, and what we both do. He has a guesthouse in the North, and he specializes in Christian tours. And we both agreed that although we’ve been around the world, there’s no place like Israel.
“When you come back from overseas,” he said, “and the plane lands, you can take a deep breath of relief. Yes, life is good overseas, and there are lots of things to buy, but the best place to live is here, in Israel.”
Well, I love a person who loves Israel as much as I do. So here’s a link to his WordPress.com (he did a pretty good job!) site, in case you’re looking for a place to stay in the north. Tell him Miriam from not-PayPal sent you!
