A 27-year-old Indian-origin soldier in the Israeli army, Sergeant First Class Barak Refael Degorker died on July 26 after being hit by a mortar shell near the Gaza Strip border.
He belonged to the Bene-Israel community, which has its origins in the Mumbai region, and with a strength of around 50,000 it is the largest Indian community in Israel. However, Sergeant Degorker was not the first foreign-origin soldier of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to be killed in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza. Amongst the IDF soldiers killed in the current round of fighting (Operation Protective Edge) there are two soldiers from the US and one from France so far.
Earlier in the month, Israel had mourned the deaths of the two American-origin soldiers in the Gaza war: Sergeant Sean Carmeli, who was raised in Texas, and Los Angeles native Sergeant Max Steinberg. All the three sergeants were considered heroes in Israel and their funerals were attended by thousands of people. Though they all served in the IDF, there is a distinction between Sergeant Degorker and Sergeants Carmeli and Steinberg; the latter two were “lone soldier(s)”.
In the IDF, a lone soldier (Hebrew: Hayal Boded) is defined as a serviceman or woman without parents in Israel. They are not Israeli citizens, yet have come not just from the US, but also from countries as far away as Australia, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa to serve in the IDF. According to the IDF, 8,217 foreign-born personnel enlisted between 2009 and August 2012. The most represented countries of origin were Russia and the US, with 1,685 and 1,661 recruits respectively. The motivation for these young men and women to make this major decision in their lives is the belief in Israel; the land which through history has been home to their faith. In many cases the first interaction of these people with the Jewish state is through the Birthright programme.
Birthright Programme
Taglit-Birthright Israel, also known as Birthright Israel or simply Birthright, is a not-for-profit educational organization that sponsors free ten-day heritage trips to Israel for Jewish young adults, aged 18–26.Taglit is the Hebrew word for discovery. The participants, most of whom are visiting Israel for the first time, are encouraged to discover new meaning in their personal Jewish identity and connect with Jewish history and culture during the trip. Since the winter of 1999, the year of commencement of the programme, more than 400,000 young people from 64 countries have participated in it; 80% of participants have been from the US and Canada. The funding for the programme comes from a consortium of philanthropic funds, Jewish communal groups and the government.
Lone Soldiers
About 5,800 of the soldiers currently serving in the IDF have been granted the status of lone soldiers. 50% of them come from families who do not live in Israel, and the other 50% are Israelis who are unable to live with their families due to a variety of reasons. Roughly half of all the lone soldiers serve in combat units. In the last three years approximately 40% of Lone Soldiers who enlisted joined combat units and about 20% served with combat-support units. At any given time there are an average 2,800 lone soldiers serving in the IDF, and according to an estimate 950 new lone soldiers join the IDF each year.
Lone soldiers receive various forms of support from the IDF, Israeli government ministries and other organizations. They receive a higher basic salary from the IDF, as well as financial assistance from the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption and the Ministry of Housing and Construction. They are also given help with housing, and the right to extra time off, including 30 days per year to visit family overseas.
Lone soldiers after completion of service with the IDF do not serve as reservists and are blocked from re-joining the army. During Operation Protective Edge as many former Israeli soldiers who on being ordered to return to army reserves have refused to do so, some ex-lone soldiers are asking the Israeli government to allow them to return to Israel and rejoin the IDF.
On the other hand, we have jihadists particularly in Syria and Iraq, recruiting people from all over the world to join them in the war against all those they consider are against concept of Islam. A study released in December 2013 by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, estimated that there are up to 11,000 foreign fighters in Syria. Other reports put the number at 15,000, of which up to 2-3,000 fighters come from Western European countries (including over 100 from the US). The recruits now come from counties such as Indonesia, India and China.
Assessment
Despite deep disparity amongst the two concepts one cannot help but compare the fallout of jihadist recruitment with that of the lone soldiers, especially in transmitting perceived angst from battlefields to their near and dear ones and communities back in their home countries.
After satellite television, it is currently the social media with its versatility and reach which is connecting communities and common people more directly and in near real time with developments in global hotspots and conflict zones. ISIS and other jihadist organisations have been resorting to Skype and twitter to fill its ranks. The presence of foreign jihadists and lone soldiers makes this information flow from the conflict zones to relatives and the community more credible, intimate and impressionable.
As the source of information now becomes more trusted and easy to associate, the information provided is consumed and exchanged in a manner that is more emotional and convincing. This increases the impact on communities far more than what probably television or social media can achieve. Consequently the potential of such information flowing from conflict zones to radicalise and polarise communities is significant. This has increased the area and the number of people influenced by a conflict
The security impact of the multi-national nature of sub-conventional conflicts has been grasped and efforts to safeguard are being evolved and effected. But multi-religious cultural/ethnic countries such as US, India are waking up to a new reality- having their citizens locked in combat with opposing sides. Jews against Muslims, Shia-against Sunnis etc fighting in foreign lands for causes agnostic to national interest, yet creating for communities in their home countries- a fault-line.
This article appeared at South Asia Monitor.
Monish Gulati is a Senior Fellow with Society for Policy Studies, New Delhi. He can be reached at m_gulati_2001@yahoo.com
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