U.S. Nonprofits Funnel Millions to Israeli Army Volunteers

American participants for the Israeli army have partied with Ben Shapiro in Boca Raton met with House Republicans Brian Mast and Mike Lawler in Washington and joined New York City Mayor Eric Adams at Gracie Mansion On a Manhattan rooftop late last year they sipped cocktails and reconnected with people they d met before supporting Israel in its campaign of bombing displacement and starvation in Gaza These efforts were organized by Nevut a New York-based charity supporting American lone soldiers who sign up for the Israeli military Among its upcoming events is a wellness retreat to Panama for lone soldier veterans who served in the Israeli military during its ongoing genocide in Gaza which has killed more than people nearly half of them children according to Gaza s physical condition ministry Other estimates put the death toll at or higher Nevut which operates across states is one of at least U S -based charities directly funding lone soldier programs Since according to The Intercept s analysis of their tax forms these organizations have spent over million to recruit and endorsement lone soldiers from initial drafting to reintegration The groups provide subsidized apartments therapy wellness retreats and equipment to Israeli military units The Intercept reviewed five years of tax documents that show was the preponderance lucrative year on record for lone soldier programs After Israel began calling up hundreds of thousands of reservists in the wake of Hamas s October attack U S donors poured funding into the organizations Each year from to between and lone soldiers served in the Israeli military about a third of them from North America Since October it is estimated that lone soldiers from the U S alone have either signed up or returned to Israel to serve The programs have helped to prop up an Israeli military now facing its biggest recruitment problem in decades As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drags the assault on Gaza through its second year civilians have protested his regime and soldiers have refused to show up for reserve duty With an estimated Israeli soldiers refusing operation contributors from the U S and other countries provide reinforcements Last year the Israeli military estimated that at least American citizens were now serving a combination of lone soldiers and Americans who immigrated to Israel with their families On social media Nevut and other organizations post pictures videos and testimonies from lone soldiers serving in Gaza Earlier this month Nevut promoted a video advertising a day at a shooting range as a little dose of enjoyable fire A man wearing military tactical gear says All the guys here serve in the IDF a majority serve in the war in Gaza Another Instagram video encourages lone soldier veterans to reach out if they re thinking of going back into combat One Nevut post advises viewers on What not to ask a lone soldier including Did you kill anyone How several people died over there and Were you in Gaza or Lebanon These can potentially feel like dismissive political or emotionally charged questions the post warns A screenshot from Nevut's Instagram Screenshot Nevut Instagram While the United States steady supply of weapons shipments to Israel has come under scrutiny from elected executives to the United Nations thousands of U S civilians who journey to Israel to join the army have received markedly less attention Back at home American lone soldiers do speaking tours to cleanse the reputation of the Israeli military I almost died for Palestinian children explained lone soldier Eli Wininger at an event in an Alabama church put on by the Massachusetts-based lone soldier organization Growing Wings A Los Angeles native Wininger has touched numerous sides of the lone soldier ecosystem He was recruited after taking part in the youth scouts scheme Garin Tzabar served with the Israeli military in Gaza returned to the United States and of late started a volunteer position as a youth leader with the U S nonprofit Friends of the IDF Speaking at the Growing Wings event earlier this year he stated he was instructed not to kill Palestinian children There is not a single soldier in there that is doing that According to the U N over children have been killed or injured in Gaza since October though this is likely an undercount Wininger did not respond to The Intercept s request for comment Related They Went to Get Flour With Their Mother in Gaza She Came Back in a White Shroud In response to questions on lone soldiers and the army s affiliation with U S nonprofit groups the IDF stated The Intercept it had no comment Neither Nevut nor Growing Wings responded to The Intercept s requests for comment Federal law prohibits recruiting for foreign armies within U S borders but it allows donations and promotion of foreign volunteering Where if at all efforts to help American teens join the Israeli military run afoul of U S strategy on foreign fighting is hard to determine experts say The State Department basically says on the website that we don t want Americans serving abroad disclosed David Malet an associate professor of justice law and criminology at American University who researches foreign fighters But realistically we know it s kind of hard to enforce that A State Department spokesperson noted U S citizens serving in the Israeli military are not required to register their system with the U S authorities Dual citizens must comply with the laws of both countries of which they are a citizen including any mandatory military function The department announced U S citizens are encouraged to consult current expedition advisories for Israel the West Bank and Gaza It recommends that people reconsider their journey to Israel and the West Bank and not excursion to Gaza Our embassies overseas maintain rough estimates of U S citizens in their countries for contingency planning purposes but these estimates are imperfect can vary and are constantly changing which is why we do not generally disclose them publicly a State Department spokesperson disclosed in a comment U S citizens are not required to register their passage to a foreign country with us so we cannot track with certainty how a great number of U S citizens are in any particular country The State Department referred questions about legal implications of serving in a foreign military to the Department of Justice DOJ referred questions to the Department of Defense which referred questions to U S Citizenship and Immigration Services USCIS referred questions back to the State Department Across the Jewish diaspora and in Israel lone soldiers are receiving more recognition than ever I m definitely aware of increased numbers of assistants which are welcomed in Israel right now Malet explained You can see a lot more recognition and efforts to honor fallen lone soldiers than you would have seen before October The Pipeline Becca Strober was hailed as a hero when she returned to the U S while serving as a lone soldier in Israel As she walked around her father s synagogue in Philadelphia in the congregants stood up to shake her hand and thank her I had just finished guarding a West Bank settlement reported Strober now an anti-occupation activist Even then I was like this is such a weird experience Strober was first introduced to the possibility of joining the Israeli military when she was during a high school semester she spent in Israel She noted alumni of the semester in Israel initiative wearing miliary uniforms spoke to her group There were a lot of informal methods of talking about enlisting in the army Strober recounted The Intercept She later joined after participating in the Garin Tzabar initiative which runs two major drafting sessions each year The effort is funded by Tzofim the biggest Zionist youth movement in Israel and the U S Also known as the Friends of Israel Scouts the group has a U S nonprofit in New York Tzofim begins educating kids at five years old mentioned one former Zionist youth leader in Australia who requested anonymity for fear of professional retaliation He took part in groups affiliated with Tzofim as a teen There is a direct funnel from educating toddlers to as soon as they turn they re of military age and they re indoctrinated and groomed and brainwashed and they re ready to fight the battle Garin Tzabar continues to recruit lone soldiers from the U S who often end up serving in combat in Gaza and protecting civilians in the West Bank where Israeli settlers and forces have killed Palestinians since October Israeli soldiers talking to settlers in the West Bank in April Photo Georgia Gee The recruitment pipeline includes a great number of U S day schools from more conservative yeshivas to modern Jewish day schools that advertise how plenty of alumni go on to serve in the Israeli military The Frisch School in Paramus New Jersey had alumni serving in the Israeli military as of Another school in New Jersey the Rae Kushner Yeshiva has congratulated an alum who became a social media manager in the IDF Spokesperson s Unit Her work was recognized as essential for hasbara by the Israeli news the school boasted on Facebook using a term for Israeli masses diplomacy including propaganda tailored to international audiences Another alum of the school served as a lone soldier in the army and was a friend of the son of Netanyahu who commemorated him after he died while traveling in One charity reviewed by The Intercept the Lone Soldier Foundation specifically provides funds for the children of families that attend a synagogue in northern New Jersey who join the Israeli military According to the group s largest part current tax filing it also supports the units in which the children of members of its congregation serve In the group spent over on providing non-combat and equipment to IDF units in which eligible American citizens served Read our complete coverage Israel s War on Gaza North American lone soldiers are a great example of the Zionist spirit or the Zionist dream Strober advised The Intercept It keeps American Jewish communities very very close to the Israel question It doesn t allow them to think critically because it s so close because you know people who have been killed or people who have served The Charities Under heightened masses scrutiny U S nonprofits have distanced themselves from directly funding projects in the West Bank or other settlements which are illegal under international law But U S -based nonprofits granted million to specific lone soldier programs in alone The Intercept uncovered It s attainable the real number is higher as nonprofits only have to review foreign grants above a certain threshold It doesn t allow American Jewish communities to think critically because you know people who have been killed The biggest known funder is Friends of the IDF which has spent nearly million on its lone soldier project since supporting more than lone soldiers each year according to documents filed with the Internal Revenue Institution In a message Friends of the IDF an official partner of the Israeli military mentioned it provides more than lone soldiers with practical emotional and mental physical condition help throughout their organization to make sure they never feel alone The group commented about half of the soldiers it backs are from Israel but are considered lone soldiers because they don t have family patronage On its Instagram page the group says it is the only U S non-profit working directly with IDF leadership to provide critical assistance for Israel soldiers fitness well-being training Other organizations help offset the costs of living for lone soldiers Bayit Brigade which operates in both the U S and Israel helps lone soldiers find affordable housing in Tel Aviv and raises emergency funds to help carriage soldiers to their bases and provide supplies in the field Bayit Brigade has posted videos of participants providing support to the Israeli military s Yahalom Unit which conducts tunnel warfare and demolitions in Gaza including destroying areas to allow the military to operate The organization s revenue jumped from approximately in to million in according to nonprofit documents In a message the group informed The Intercept that following October it temporarily expanded its locality promotion efforts to address urgent requirements on the ground but have no formal relationship with any authorities entity or with the IDF The lines between assistance mentoring and recruitment of lone soldiers including what a formal relationship entails are often blurred explained Strober the former lone soldier Garin Tzabar for example is operated in part by Israel s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration Other efforts to finance lone soldiers like Bayit Brigade distance themselves from any sort of affiliation with the Israeli administration Other organizations also advertise their encouragement for soldiers who fought in Gaza Friends of Emek Lone Soldiers held concerts in the West Bank for women who served in Gaza The website of the Michael Levin Lone Soldier Foundation includes testimonies of soldiers who received advocacy while serving in Gaza When she was part of the Israeli military Strober still considered herself a believer in human rights she informed The Intercept She was working for a human rights organization that supported Gazans freedom of movement when in Israel launched a series of attacks on Gaza that killed more than Palestinians in under two months I didn t really know anything about Gaza Strober noted It was kind of the first time that I had any concept of who Palestinians were on the other side and how much control Israel had Strober noted she watched her friends get called up from the reserves and realized she didn t want to go serve in Gaza I just remember thinking I m not going to go zero in guns to kill Gazans when I m talking to Gazans on the phone every day she commented The post U S Nonprofits Funnel Millions to Israeli Army Helpers appeared first on The Intercept