The attitude in Israel is truly a unique blend of self-righteousness and unsolicited familial familiarity. Just one quick example, my dad came from Miami only a short two weeks after the zman started to spend time with my grandfather who was in the hospital. So naturally I spent time with him and went to go visit him in the hospital. Anyway that first night my dad is driving from my yeshivah to the hospital (Haddassah Ein Kerem, it's in a valley right past Bayit Vegan) and we stop at a bus stop to ask someone for directions. It went kind of like this, only in hebrew:
Us: "How do I get to Haddassah Ein Kerem?"
Woman at the bus stop: *Gets an extremely offended look on her face* "You're completely heading in the wrong direction! This road is to Shaare Zedek"
Us: Ok, so nu.. How do I get there?
Woman: *Throws us another dirty look as if she personally is being affected by our delay in getting to the hospital* Turn around to the road you just came from - Why did you turn off that road anyway!? - and continue straight continuously.
So we thanked her and continued going. I was cracking up because I love the way they get so involved in your life here. Like the time my taxi driver was yelling at me for running late to my bus while we were stuck in traffic. That for some reason I agreed to have the moneh running as opposed to a flat rate (the only time I have ever done that) and he was making money off my irresponsibility was irrelevant.
On the other hand later that night, as I waited for a bus that was never going to come. Some Israeli yeshivah guys asked me, who was dressed very chiloni at the time, (a previous summer spent in israel, before flipping out) if I'd like to join them in their already squashed car to Bnei Brak where someone's brother would give us a ride home to my grandmothers town between Bnei Brak and yerushalayim. Looking back it doesn't sound like such a great chessed, but I would have been stuck in Jerusalem over night and they didn't have to ask me at all.
Also a few weeks ago I was waiting at a bus stop on a major thruway in Jerusalem and looked up as I heard the siren of a Magen David Adom ambulance approach. As it sped by I noticed one of the EMT's in the front seat saying Tehillim and that just kind struck me. That Israel really is a place of yidden who all have that familial bond. Like all the busses that have been wishing me Shana Tova and Chag Sameach for a month already. It's just a place that I really feel at home.
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