“Lone Soldiers” in the Israeli Military—A Research Note on the Conceptualization of Foreign Fighters

ABSTRACT

This research note contributes to the growing body of knowledge on foreign fighters in international affairs. While most scholars in the field derive their understanding of the phenomenon from highly publicized cases of Western Muslims fighting alongside Jihadi groups in the Middle East, this article brings a new case study into the arena: Jewish foreign nationals who voluntarily enlist in the Israeli military, also known as lone soldiers. After a presentation of this to date unexplored case (i.a. through nineteen semi-structured interviews), the article delves into the conceptual realm, discussing whether Israel’s lone soldiers can be analyzed within the foreign-fighter framework in the first place. Based on the empirical findings and an interdisciplinary literature review on foreign fighters the article argues that lone soldiers do constitute a relevant case study. This research note further suggests that much of the controversy on conceptual matters could be avoided by understanding the phenomenon as an action (i.e., foreign fighting) rather than an actor (i.e., foreign fighter). Further research is warranted to support these findings.

KEYWORDS:

• Foreign fighters
• Israel
• war volunteering
• transnationalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. To protect the anonymity of the interviewees, only pseudonyms are used in this study.

2. Interview with a former lone soldier, Jerusalem, February 19, 2018.

3. Army order 38.0808 (first published in 1975) about lone soldiers’ rights and benefits set out two categories of lone soldiers: those coming from abroad, and those who grew up in Israel but do not have a parental support structure during their army service. This research is only concerned with the lone soldiers from abroad (i.e. foreign lone soldiers). In 2016, there were a total of around 6,500 lone soldiers in the IDF; 54 percent from abroad and 46 percent Israelis. See The State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel, “צבא הגנה לישראל הטיפול בחיילים הבודדים במהלך שירותם הצבאי ולאחר שחרורם מצה”ל [IDF: The Treatment of Individual Soldiers during Their Military Service and after Their Release from the IDF]” March 12, 2018.

4. In David Malet, Foreign Fighters: Transnational Identity in Civic Conflicts (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 10, the author finds that foreign fighters participated in more than one in five civil wars over the past 200 years. For cases of foreign fighters in other types of wars see Nir Arielli, From Byron to Bin Laden: A History of Foreign War Volunteering (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2018).

5. See, for example, Hanine Hassan, “Fighting Jihad for Israel,” Al Jazeera, July 22, 2014, www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/07/jihad-israel-201472272438651885.html.

6. David Malet, “Foreign Fighters for Israel,” The Washington Post, July 22, 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/07/22/foreign-fighters-for-israel/?utm_term=.e1b383343ad1.

7. In Malet, Foreign Fighters, 127, the author claims that “even with easier travel to Israel, fewer legal restrictions against participation, and the far stronger position of the Jewish state—no foreign volunteers appeared during the subsequent 1956 Suez crisis or at the outset of the 1967 Six-Day War.”

8. Aaron Cohen, Brotherhood of Warriors (New York: Harper Perennial, 2009); Adam Harmon, Lonely Soldier: The Memoir of an American Soldier in the Israeli Army (New York: Presidio Press, 2006); Joel Chasnoff, The 188th Crybaby Brigade: A Skinny Jewish Kid from Chicago Fights Hezbollah: A Memoir (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010).

9. “Our Mission,” Aluf Stone, IDF Lone Soldier Veterans Association, 2014, www.mronen.wixsite.com/alufstone/mission.

10. Knesset Member Haim Yalin, for example, came to Israel in 1976 as a lone soldier with the help of the Jewish Agency. “I admit,” he affirmed, “there was no such thing as a status for lone soldiers; they didn’t know how to deal with it. The only right we had was to talk with our parents once every three months for three minutes with a landline phone.” See: The Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee “פרוטוקול מס’ 78 מישיבת ועדת העלייה הקליטה והתפוצות [Protocol No. 78 of the Meeting of the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee],” February 23, 2016; Cathryn J. Prince, “New Support for Lone Soldiers Who Don’t Call Israel Home,” The Times of Israel, August 12, 2014, www.timesofisrael.com/new-support-for-lone-soldiers-who-dont-call-israel-home/; Steve Lipman, “Aid For IDF’s ‘Lone Soldiers,’” Jewish Week, August 12, 2009, www.jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/aid-for-idfs-lone-soldiers-3/.

11. Malet, Foreign Fighters, 127.

12. Nir Arielli, “Recognition, Immigration and Divergent Expectations: The Reception of Foreign Volunteers in Israel during and after the Wars of 1948 and 1967,” Journal of Modern European History 14, no. 3 (2016): 374–90.

13. Literally, Aliyah in Hebrew means “ascent.” Aliyah refers to the immigration of Diaspora Jews to Israel. The concept of Aliyah has been codified into Israeli legislation under the Law of Return that grants every Jew, child, grandchild, and spouse of a Jew the right to immigrate to Israel and to become a citizen of the state automatically.

14. As an illustration, a MACHAL information website provides a message for non-Jews who would like to serve in the IDF: “Non-Jewish Volunteers,” Mahal IDF Volunteers, 2016, www.mahal-idf-volunteers.org/about/non-Jewish-volunteer.htm (accessed March 01, 2019).

15. Arielli, “Recognition, Immigration and Divergent Expectations,” 21.

16. During the 1990s, MACHAL’s 1948 wartime contributions were finally officially and publicly remembered: a memorial site was constructed in their honor in 1993, and, in 1997, a MACHAL stamp was issued. See Dr. Yaacov Markovitzky, Machal: Overseas Volunteers in Israel’s War of Independence (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Education, Israel Information Center, Publication Service, 2007), 2, 41.

17. Herb Keinon, Lone Soldiers: Israel’s Defenders from around the World (New York, Jerusalem: Urim Publications, 2012), 36.

18. These NGOs and foundations provide different types of services, ranging from social activities to housing opportunities, and holistic programs covering the lone soldiers’ entire army service. The following are examples of lone soldier support organizations ordered by year of establishment: Garin Tzabar (1991), The Albert Owens Lone Soldier Program (2002), Wings Program of the Jewish Agency and Merage Foundation (2005), HaBayit shel Benji (2006, residency opened in 2013), Lone Soldier Center (2009), Garin/Aish Machal (2009), Lone Soldiers Program (2012), Olim la Tavor (2012), Chayal el Chayal (2014), and Tzahal Connection (2015).

19. Nefesh B'Nefesh, Chayal Boded (Lone Soldier) Benefits, The IDF entitles lone soldiers to (1) a higher monthly stipend than Israeli soldiers, (2) several types of housing benefits, (3) monthly food stipends, (4) more days off and other benefits. See https://www.nbn.org.il/aliyahpedia/army-national-service/pre-draft/chayal-boded-lone-soldier-benefits/ (accessed March 01, 2019).

20. The State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel, “צבא הגנה לישראל הטיפול בחיילים הבודדים במהלך שירותם הצבאי ולאחר שחרורם מצה”ל [IDF: The Treatment of Individual Soldiers during Their Military Service and after Their Release from the IDF]” March 12, 2018. For numbers on lone soldiers in the IDF between 2002 and 2012, see Shelly Levi, “סיוע לחיילים בודדים בצה”ל—מוגש לוועדת העלייה, הקליטה והתפוצות [Assistance to Lone Soldiers in the IDF—Presented to the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee]” (The Knesset’s Research and Information Center, November 5, 2013). For 2011–2014, see Alona Ferber, “Israeli Army Cites Rise in Number of Overseas Volunteers Joining Its Ranks,” Haaretz, April 22, 2015, www.haaretz.com/.premium-idf-cites-rise-in-number-of-overseas-volunteers-1.5353742.

21. The Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee “פרוטוקול מס’ 78 מישיבת ועדת העלייה הקליטה והתפוצות [Protocol No. 78 of the Meeting of the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee],” February 23, 2016. “Oversea Volunteers,” Mahal, 2020, http://www.mahal.org.il/en/Pages/default.aspx (accessed June 01, 2019) Amir Bouhbut, “ברקע הטרור: צרפת הפכה ליצואנית מספר אחת של מתנדבים לצה”ל [In the background of terrorism: France became the number one exporter of volunteers to the IDF],” Walla News, January 13, 2016, www.news.walla.co.il/item/2924386. For the MACHAL numbers in 2005–2006, see Yaakov Katz, “Be All You Can Be?” The Jerusalem Post, August 16, 2007, www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Be-all-you-can-be.

22. Even if the lone soldiers from countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Ethiopia are legally classified within the category of “foreign lone soldiers,” they are not considered in this research due to the specific context of their countries’ recent immigration history to Israel. Representatives of support organizations for lone soldiers also confirmed this quite intuitive separation between them and the Westerners/South Americans. The former are usually treated more like Israeli lone soldiers.

23. For exceptions, see, for example, Lorne L. Dawson and Amarnath Amarasingam, “Talking to Foreign Fighters: Insights into the Motivations for Hijrah to Syria and Iraq,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 40, no. 3 (March 4, 2017): 191–210; Various studies based on the King’s College International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence (ICSR) database of interviews with more than one hundred foreign fighters, see: https://icsr.info/our-work/foreign-fighters-and-the-returnee-threat/; Edwin Bakker and Peter Grol, “Motives and Considerations of Potential Foreign Fighters from the Netherlands” (International Center for Counter-Terrorism, 2015); Daan Weggemans, Edwin Bakker, and Peter Grol, “Who Are They and Why Do They Go? The Radicalization and Preparatory Processes of Dutch Jihadist Foreign Fighters,” Perspectives on Terrorism 8, no. 4 (2014): 100–10.

24. The IDF’s public diplomacy office refused to respond to my query on Mach 13, 2018. A second attempt was rejected on April 21, 2018. The MACHAL department in the MoD responded on March 20, 2018, that the information requested was classified.

25. Eight of the interviewees were serving in the IDF when the interviews were conducted. Seven had completed their service between two months and nine years prior to being interviewed, while one participant served in the early 2000s.

26. Interview with current lone soldier, Ra’anana, February 25, 2018.

27. “WORLD BNEI AKIVA,” https://www.worldbneiakiva.org (accessed March 01, 2019).

28. Interview with current lone soldier, Ra’anana, February 25, 2018.

29. Interview with current lone soldier, Jaffa, February 20, 2018.

30. Ibid.

31. Interview with former lone soldier, Skype, February 28, 2018.

32. Interview with former lone soldier, Rishon le Tzion, February 18, 2018.

33. Interview with former lone soldier, Tel Aviv, February 20, 2018.

34. Interview with current lone soldier, phone call, March 3, 2018.

35. Interview with former lone soldier, Skype, March 14, 2018.

36. Its security implications even led to two unanimous United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolutions under Chapter VII (2178 [2014] and 2178 [2017]).

37. Mercenaries are commonly defined as persons who fight for a conflict party solely motivated by the desire for financial gain.

38. Markus Friedrich, “War Volunteering in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Heinrich-Fabri-Institut, Blaubeuren, 6.–8. September 2007,” Militaergeschichtliche Zeitschrift 67, no. 1 (2008): 147; Book published on the basis of conference: Christine G Krüger and Sonja Levsen, “Introduction: Volunteers, War, and the Nation since the French Revolution,” in War Volunteering in Modern Times: From the French Revolution to the Second World War (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 9.

39. Arielli, From Byron to Bin Laden, 4 (emphasis added).

40. Gilles Pécout, “The International Armed Volunteers: Pilgrims of a Transnational Risorgimento,” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 14, no. 4 (December 1, 2009): 414.

41. Arielli, From Byron to Bin Laden, 6.

42. David Malet, Foreign Fighters, 8.

43. Ibid., 9.

44. Cerwyn Moore and Paul Tumelty, “Foreign Fighters and the Case of Chechnya: A Critical Assessment,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 31, no. 5 (2008): 412–33.

45. Thomas Hegghammer, “The Rise of Muslim Foreign Fighters: Islam and the Globalization of Jihad,” International Security 35, no. 3 (2010): 58; Thomas Hegghammer, “Should I Stay or Should I Go? Explaining Variation in Western Jihadists’ Choice between Domestic and Foreign Fighting,” American Political Science Review 107, no. 1 (2013): 1.

46. Arielli, From Byron to Bin Laden, 69–76.

47. Ibid., 146.

48. Joseph A.Carter, Shiraz Maher, and Peter R.Neumann, “#Greenbirds: Measuring Importance and Influence in Syrian Foreign Fighter Networks” (The International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence ICSR, 2014). See also Peter Neumann, “Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq: Motivations and Implications,” London School of Economics and Political Science, January 27, 2015, https://soundcloud.com/lsemiddleeastcentre/lse-neumann (accessed March 01, 2019).

49. Moore and Tumelty, “Foreign Fighters and the Case of Chechnya: A Critical Assessment,” 412–13.

50. Malet, Foreign Fighters, 20.

51. Thomas Hegghammer, “The Rise of Muslim Foreign Fighters,” 58.

52. Barak Mendelsohn, “Foreign Fighters—Recent Trends,” Orbis 55, no. 2 (2011): 192.

53. Thomas Hegghammer, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”1.

54. Malet, “Foreign Fighters for Israel.”

55. Malet, Foreign Fighters, 5.

56. Arielli, From Byron to Bin Laden, 102–8.

57. Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).

58. Malet, Foreign Fighters, 4.

59. Malet, Foreign Fighters, 9–10.

60. Jason Fritz and Joseph K. Young, “Transnational Volunteers: American Foreign Fighters Combating the Islamic State,” Terrorism and Political Violence, 2017, 2.

61. Ibid., 5.

62. Moore and Tumelty, “Foreign Fighters,” 412.

63. Malet, “Foreign Fighter Mobilization and Persistence in a Global Context,” Terrorism and Political Violence 27, no. 3 (2015), 454–73.

64. See, for example, Oren Barak and Chanan Cohen, “The ‘Modern Sherwood Forest’: Theoretical and Practical Challenges,” in Nonstate Actors in Intrastate Conflicts, ed. Dan Miodownik and Oren Barak (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 12–33.

65. Arielli, From Byron to Bin Laden, 1–10.

66. Ibid., 39.

67. Andrea de Guttry, Francesca Capone, and Christophe Paulussen, eds., Foreign Fighters under International Law and Beyond (The Hague, Netherlands: T.M.C. Asser Press, 2016), 2.

68. Sandra Kraehenmann, Academic Briefing No. 71 (Geneva, Switzerland: Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, 2014).

69. Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, “Foreign Fighters Under International Law,” December 11, 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1bTX4VGMuE.

70. Ibid.

71. David Hearst and Peter Oborne, “Prosecute British Who Fight with the Israeli Army, Says Baroness Warsi,” Middle East Eye, March 29, 2017, www.middleeasteye.net/news/prosecute-uk-fighters-israeli-army-says-baroness-warsi-992834335.

72. Arielli, From Byron to Bin Laden, 138.

73. Interview with current lone soldier, Skype, March 14, 2018.

74. Richard Jackson, “An Argument for Terrorism,” Perspectives on Terrorism 2, no. 2 (2008); Richard Jackson, Lee Jarvis, Jeroen Gunning, Marie Breen-Smyth, Terrorism: A Critical Introduction (Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan International Higher Education, 2011); Jeffrey A. Sluka, ed., Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999).

75. See, for example, Thanassis Cambanis et al., Hybrid Actors: Armed Groups and State Fragmentation in the Middle East (New York, NY: The Century Foundation, 2019).

Additional information

Funding

This research was completed without external funding.

Notes on contributors

Timrah Schmutz

Timrah Schmutz is an MA graduate of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, specialized in peace and conflict studies.