What are average wages like in NYC/DC? More than ~$30k gross, like in Israel? What is the transit like in NYC with regards to the ability of the middle and lower classes to live outside of Manhattan?

Remember that OP suggested Tel Aviv's bad transit is not an issue cause you can walk anywhere if you live in the city (mostly if you live somewhat near the center/downtown, but nm that for now).

I'll speak of DC since I know it best.

Pre-tax average is in the 80k to 90k USD range for DC, though obviously double that if you're thinking about a couple. DC transit is fairly good in-city, going to the suburbs its branches rather than a grid system so the train lines will essentially take you from home to work and that's it.

Walkability depends on where you live. In the suburbs of DC (virginia/maryland), there's quite a few walkable neighborhoods but they're small and separated from the next walkable neighborhood by about 3-5 miles.

It was sort of a rhetorical question :)

My point was that if you are raising a family in metropolitan Tel Aviv you are either wealthy or, more likely, live in the suburbs.

In which case transit & traffic matter a lot.