JERUSALEM — When the cosmetics salesman from Petah Tikva rolls his Toyota out of the driveway each morning, he does not worry about the Palestinians, the Trump Middle East plan or tensions with Iran — the issues most of the world thinks of when it thinks about Israel.

No, Ronen Yom Tov just thinks about traffic.

And he has plenty of time: It takes him half an hour just to reach the highway four miles away.

“It’s one enormous jam with no end in sight,” he said.

That about sums up all of Israel. And it’s not just the traffic.

Even as Israel has matured from a small, desert nation fighting for its survival into a regional power with an enviable high-tech industry, it has neglected the transportation, education and health-care systems that experts say are vital to its prosperity.