Hey, I'm Ishi Harmon, and this is Israel Story.

As you know, we're in the midst of our wartime diaries series, which is an attempt to collect slivers of life during these seemingly endless and difficult days.

Today, we bring you something a bit different. A story not of a person, but of a bus stop.

Or really, I should probably say, of two bus stops.

Seven and a half years ago, Zev Levi joined our team as an intern.

Today, he's Israel Story's C.O. But still, just like Benny Begine

and Dovchenin back in the day, he takes the bus to work every morning. In fact, he takes two

buses to work. See, Ze'Ev, his wife, and their three kids live in Tsuradasa, a small town 12 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem.

The first bus he takes stops right across the street from his house. He then switches to another

bus at the entrance to the nearby city of Betar Elit, which is on the other side of the green line,

or in other words, is a settlement in the West Bank.

And since the bus system in Israel isn't exactly known for its punctuality,

Zev spends quite a bit of time waiting around at these two bus stops, contemplating their

respective merits.

Okay, he'll take it from here.

Even though Tsuradasa and Beit are very close to each other, they might as well be in two different worlds.

It's not just the fact that they're on opposite sides of the green line.

It's that Tsar Hadasa has a mixed population of secular and religious Jews, while Beitari

Litt is almost entirely Khareidi. In the last national elections, for example, the results in

Tsur Hadasa were pretty similar to those of the country as a whole, whereas in Beitari

Litt, more than 90% of the residents voted for ultra-orthodox parties.

But where I feel that difference most is at the two respective bus stops.

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