North American Immigrants Arrive in Israel to Join IDF

In the 1970s, many young people in the United States who objected to the Vietnam War attempted to avoid military service by dodging or avoiding the draft.

Today, in Israel, the opposite is happening. Even as the threat of war between Israel and Iran looms, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reports that 127 immigrants from The United States and Canada flew into Israel on Tuesday morning in order to join the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). According to Israel Hayom’s Yael Branovsky, 127 is “The record number of North American new immigrants enlisting in the IDF”. Branovsky also reports that the 127 are part of “an overall group of 350 olim.”

The new arrivals reportedly met with a warm welcome. According to the JTA, “Hundreds of families and friends as well as Israeli dignitaries gathered at Ben Gurion Airport for an arrival ceremony featuring an address by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”

According to Arutz Sheva’s Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Netanyahu spoke to the new arrivals in English, saying, “I was given a list of the places you come from – California, New Jersey, Ohio – from two dozen states across America and Alberta and Quebec. The truth is you all come from Israel, the land we all come from.”

Gedalyahu also reports that Netanyahu praised those who came to join the IDF for their willingness to defend Israel. He also pointed out that defending Israel was “a privilege not afforded to previous generations of Jews.” Indeed, he said, “For 2,000 years, the Jewish people could not defend themselves.”

The arrival ceremony was streamed live by several web sites including The Jerusalem Post and The Nefesh B’Nefesh web site – NBN.org. Organizers of the flight also gave it a hashtag on twitter, so that Americans and Israelis who were interested in the ceremony could follow it live.

Twitter followers voiced strong emotional reactions to the event, often speaking of shedding tears. “JEALOUS,” wrote one follower. “Watching through tears of happiness for all the olim.”

Lior Weintraub, Former Spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, tweeted a simple “Welcome home guys.”

Meanwhile, Jodi Rudoren, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for the New York Times tweeted her observations about the makeup of the new arrivals, saying “Planeful of new immigs to #israel includes 6 dogs, 5 sets of twins, 93 kids, 48 families, 127 soldiers to be.”