1. Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are not “international cities”. They are just cities.
2. From Tzomet Maccabim till Malcha, a distance of some 35 kilometers, Route 443 has no traffic lights. Going towards Tel Aviv, from Tzomet Maccabim, there are 5 , one of which is almost always green (Adam). Hardly “governed by traffic lights”.
3. Considering the large volume of passenger traffic,Ben Gurion airport is extraordinarily accessible and efficient, with plenty of parking. Far better than Kennedy,LaGuardia and Newark.
4. For better and worse, God provided us with a Homeland that is full of peaks and valleys, making the construction of high speed roads extremely difficult. Going only 90 km/hr. on 443 is not really a serious problem, is it?
5. I can get from Modi’in to Katzrin in the Golan, 200 km (120 miles), in two and a quarter hours, not speeding. Lousy infrastructure ? Hardly.
6. Been lately on Thirteenth avenue? On the Belt Parkway? Crosstown Manhattan? Good luck. (yes, I know you are British) So who can’t “think in front of their noses” in traffic planning?
7. Route 38 is indeed dangerous, granted. They are working on it, but please pay no attention to that.
8. A snowfall in Jerusalem like we saw last week comes about as often as a Hurricane Sandy. Ready to invest the whole bank account in preparing for it? That would be foolish.
Methinks there is more Meraglim-ness in the OP than objectivity .