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‘I love the Jewish people’ is refrain in NYT homage to American Jews joining Israeli army

A New York Times report on 127 American Jews going to serve in the Israeli army often reads like a promotion of the idea of dual loyalty. The word “love” is used 8 times in the piece, including in the headline, “Enlisting From Afar for the Love of Israel.” And the piece features this frankly-Israelist statement:

“Their motivation is often way higher than the average Israeli,” said Col. Shuli Ayal, who oversees the lone-soldier program. “They want to make their service as meaningful as possible.”

Did any of these people consider enlisting in the U.S. army? the Times doesn’t ask. Of 22-year-old Josh Warhit, an American Jew who is the focus of the piece, Marsha Cohen tells me: “If he were a Muslim and going anywhere else in the world, he’d be labeled a brainwashed jihadi.”

Here are the love references:

Enlisting From Afar for the Love of Israel

Josh Warhit: “I love the Jewish people. Love involves commitment.”

“I hope to spend my time in Israel protecting those I love, not torturing those who hate me,” Mr. Rechenbach, also 22, said in an e-mail interview ahead of the flight

“You want to teach your kids to love Israel, but you don’t want them necessarily to take you so literally,” his mother, Ilissa Warhit, said

“I love my family, I love my friends and I love the Jewish people.” [Warhit]

Do Americans who go serve in a foreign army lose their citizenship? Good question. Apparently that was once true, no longer. Note the rules from the State Dept. here, and an interpretation of dual citizenship here. Why didn’t the Times raise this issue? Is the occupation in American interests?

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should the u.s. government threaten to take away their u.s. citizenship, how long before these israel firsters would come scurrying home?

I think there’s a loophole for people with dual citizenship in a country that has mandatory military service. A classmate in highschool from South Korea had to go back and do his army service once he graduated highschool, otherwise, he would have problems every time he went back, even for a visit. One of my Egyptian friends went back home for summer vacation and then was not allowed to leave Egypt to go back to school until he sorted out his military service, and I knew some people who were staying on outdated visas because they were waiting to go back when they were no longer required to do their army. So for an American with additional nationalities that require military service, staying in the army for a few years because it’s required shouldn’t preclude you from coming back home.

So for an Israeli family who moved to the States but went to Israel every few years to visit their family, once the kids turned 18, they couldn’t go visit family anymore because the Israeli authorities wouldn’t let them out (if you were born in Israel, you have to travel there under your Israeli passport, even if youre like my mom and left 50 years ago).

However, I don’t think this should apply to these kids as they are taking Israeli citizenship specifically to join the army. Voluntarily joining another country’s armed forces should require you to hand back your American citizenship.

From your links

“entering or serving in the armed forces of a foreign state engaged in hostilities against the U.S. or serving as a commissioned or non-commissioned officer in the armed forces of a foreign state (Sec. 349 (a) (3) INA);”

Note that in the US Army one only needs to be sergeant to be an nco. In the Marine Corps even a corporal is a nco.

How do you ‘love’ a group of 12 million people. .as in really love love love them?…and probably only really know 100 of them at best?
I ‘love’ my family, I love some people. I don’t like “Love” all Americans.
If there were some Americans and some Canadians being held by some mad man threatening to kill to them I wouldn’t be thinking save the Americans , don’t kill the Americans, I’d be thinking save these ‘people’.
I can’t say I love the Palestines when I don’t really even know them, I can care and feel deeply for their plight as human beings.
Course I am not taught that it’s me and mine or my kind against the world…which is what the love the Jews thing is in Jews.
It would be interesting to be around 200 years from now and see if this mentality is still going on.

“I hope to spend my time in Israel protecting those I love, not torturing those who hate me,” Mr. Rechenbach, also 22, said in an e-mail interview ahead of the flight.

“But if I gotta get a little rough, you know, bring down the ol’ krauthammer…” he added, his voice trailing off. “Me, I should kvetch? Those Arabs, they wanna push us all into the ocean.”

An IDF spokeswoman in attendance assured Mr. Rechenbach that the Israeli Army does not torture. “And if we do, we do it in strict accordance with established Old Testament moral protocols, under rabbinical supervision,” she said.