When I still lived in Jerusalem until the end of last September, I used to be in touch with more or less 50 people with different degrees of frequency ranging from a few times a week to a few times a year, mainly by seeing them in person.
When I left Israel, I had no illusion that I would be able to remain in touch with all of them, not because I didn't want to but because I was afraid that more and more of them would stop investing their time in reciprocating my electronic messages.
Unfortunately, I was right. Maintaining long distance friendship in writing doesn't seem to be part of Israel culture. Even those I consider my closest friends don't write to me unless I write to them first.
I used to email my monthly updates to all of these 50 people, but a few months ago I stopped emailing those who had never answered me, and this month I decided to stop emailing all of them. I simply sent them a one-time message instead with a link to a special blog where I publish my monthly updates for them. I didn't want to force my monthly updates upon them. If someone is interested, he can simply follow it through RSS or email.
I've decided to accept this sad reality instead of resisting it. Some of them may say that they wanted to answer me, but for some reason or other they missed the opportunity to do so. Such an excuse doesn't convince me. When speech and action contradict, I trust the latter.
If I really want to maintain long distance relationships, including friendship, with someone, I never spare my time to write to him or her on a regular basis. Sometimes I enjoy such relationships that are maintained by our mutual efforts even more than those relationships with people we regularly see face-to-face. I still remember one special type of my long distance relationship as one of the most unforgettable experiences I've had in my life.