Tel Aviv

Most Yerushalmim (or anyone who has seen Israel through the eyes of a religious program) have a hard time understanding what there is to like about Tel Aviv. On the flipside, most Tel Avivim hate Jerusalem as well, but their dislike is usually grounded in some combination of hating the religious, hating religion, or just being urban snobs who find Jerusalem too boring. Ridiculous, maybe, but at least their dislike is grounded in something real. Jerusalem is filled with religious people, the way that so much of the city observes Judaism practically forces its residents to do the same (ie, if you don't keep Shabbat but are tired of going to Aroma, you don't have so many options for drinking coffee from Friday at 3 until Saturday at around 6), and the list of movies, concerts, plays, operas, etc for Jerusalem usually includes about 6 options as opposed to Tel Aviv's 25. So yea, Tel Aviv has more to do, fewer religious people, and more restaurants open on Shabbas serving meat and milk together.
And there's plenty not to like about Tel Aviv. Much of it is kind of ugly, because of all of the drab, socialist-looking architecture. There are a lot slums in Tel Aviv, and I would be more afraid to walk around the Tahana Merkazit at night than I would in many other places in Israel. And worst of all, in my opinion, so many of the "left-wing" people just have disdain for arsim and dosim, but would god forbid ever send their kids to a school with Arabs. Sometimes I think that if Shas suddenly became in favor withdrawing from all the territories, the Tel Avivim would start wearing orange.
But these things don't seem to bother the people I know who don't like Tel Aviv. Instead, I hear that Tel Aviv has no culture, no charm, nothing Israeli about it. In one absurd case, someone I know called it American because it is less religious than Jerusalem. I have a feeling that the guy who said that hasn't met too many Israelis. But even for the people who actually know anything, I feel like their distaste for Tel Aviv isn't really justified. Of course, by only going to Tel Aviv to see hip hop shows and buy CDs, I haven't convinced anyone that Tel Aviv has culture and charm. But there's a reason why Tel Aviv Aviv has a philharmonic orchestra, multiple theaters (as in for plays, not movies), an art shuk, and more. And yet I bet that most of my hevra has been to almost none of this.
It's sad, but I think most Americans who come to Israel will never understand Tel Aviv's charm. It doesn't have the same history (at least as long as its distinguished from Yaffo), it doesn't have as many Jewish sites, and it definitely feels like it wants to be a metropolitan European city (god forbid it try to be a metropolitan Middle Eastern city). But Americans' (and probably South Africans', Canadians' and British) ignoring Tel Aviv is creating a dillusional view of Israeli city. Yesterday in Tel Aviv on a tour with the Conservative Yeshiva, our tour guide used Tel Aviv as proof that religious Zionism is vibrant while secular Zionism has given way to hedonism, materialism, and apathy. Besides the fact that there has never been a "Secular" Zionism as there has been a "Religious Zionism" (Religious Zionism's counterparts have been Labor Zionism, Cultural Zionism, and Revisionist Zionism), our tour guide's ridiculous argument rested on an assumption that only religious Jews were excited about Israelis, whereas other Israelis would be just as happy being any other nationality as long as they could be left alone. It's true that kibbutzim are privatizing; it's true that Bibi used his post as finance minister to cut social programs; and it's true that I've had little success finding shira-be-tzibbur. But to say that non-religious Israelis might as well not be Israelis is to create a false dream of what Israel and Zionism must be, and it will be a shame if Israeli culture is constantly overshadowed by a foreign fantasy of what Israeli culture is supposed to be.