Tel Aviv  - Israel being an immigrant society, for many of its inhabitants, the past literally is another country. For veteran Israelis, however, it is also a country which is vastly different to what it once was.

A society whose austere pioneering spirit was once seen as a model of idealism, has become a capitalist hub.

The centralized economy was once the subject of sour jokes with more than a grain of truth. "What is the secret to ending up with a small fortune in Israel? Arriving with a large one," used to run one of them.

Israel's gross domestic product has now outperformed other developed countries in all but three of the last ten years, and is forecast to hit around 4 per cent in 2008.

But whilst Israel may be a more modern and affluent society, many think this has come at a price.

"A lot of the fun in living here has gone," says Yvonne Thompson, a veteran immigrant from Australia. She agrees that the Israel of 2008 is a far easier place to live in, but says the palpable sense of adventure many people once felt has vanished.

The sense of achievement from building a nation out of nothing is gone, she explains.

Others see the change as part of the price paid as the country has matures from its pioneering years.

And despite the laments of many for the Israel that once was, the change is not always unwelcome.

For years, there was a sense of deprivation in Israel, with luxury goods scarce and available only to the rich and privileged due to high import taxes.

Rodney Sanders, who immigrated to Israel from South Africa in 1979, remembers how he and a friend used to gaze longingly at the display window of one of Tel Aviv's then few delicatessen stores and dream of the day they would have enough money to shop there.

That dream is dead: The items once out of reach for many are now freely available in most supermarkets.

Back then, the high tax was imposed not only on imported foodstuffs considered luxury items. The tax on new cars was also so prohibitive that few people could afford one.

In fact, Israel once had so few privately-owned cars on the roads that they were known as "privates" - a term still used mainly by elderly taxi drivers stuck in traffic jams and fuming at the other vehicles ahead of them.

Government control not only seemed to be everywhere, it manifested itself in decisions which were surprising, if not downright bizarre, for many people even at the time.

Danny Sanderson, one of Israel's most popular musicians, once had a song banned off the radio by the cultural establishment - not because of its political content, but because of its bad grammar.

Even when television was finally introduced in 1968, broadcasts ended nightly at 11 p. m. to allow people to get up early the next day for work.

Until well into the 1980's transmissions were in black and white, in order, so disgruntled legend has it, to prevent those who could afford a colour set from gloating over their less fortunate neighbours.

With a ten-fold population increase in 60 years, mainly through immigration, Israel inevitably lost the once characteristic sense of intimacy, where everyone not only knew everyone else, but knew their business as well and felt free to comment on it, many citizens say.

There are still some holdovers, though. Like his predecessors, Ehud Olmert finds himself the prime minister of a nation of prime ministers, all of whom not only know his job but are convinced they can do it better.

It was ever thus.

Immigrating to Israel by ship shortly after independence, young Ferenc Kishont, who as Ephraim Kishon would become Israel's leading satirist, noted how the weather suddenly became very hot: Everyone immediately criticized the government. (dpa)