Jewish Jihadis

Those Who Say Israel Is Always Right and The World Is Out To Get Us Are Causing Long-Term Damage To Israel.

The NGO promoting aliyah from North America and Britain has a flawless PR operation. On Monday morning, it brought a plane-load of 338 new immigrants to Ben-Gurion Airport for a stage-managed rally attended by President Rivlin. The central attraction was a group of 108 young men and women who will be inducted into the IDF in a few weeks.

With all the patriotic fervor sweeping the country in the wake of the Gaza operation, no-one is asking the necessary question whether military service should be the first stage in a new life in Israel. Moreover, should the IDF continue opening its ranks to hundreds of young Jewish men who do not plan to become citizens and spend their lives in Israel?

No-one wants to ask this question so soon after Los Angeles-native Golani sharpshooter Max Steinberg was killed in the fighting in Gaza, but it should be asked nonetheless. Is the IDF doing itself and these recruits a disservice by becoming a foreign legion for the Diaspora?

Some writers in America and Britain have raised this issue in columns accusing various pro-Israel organizations of “brainwashing” and asking why these “Jewish Jihadis” are different from Muslim men going off to fight for ISIS in Syria and Iraq.