Aliyah of U.S. family goes sour as sons arrested for IDF desertion

[azurnoir]

Military jurist: Family needs to learn that in Israel, unlike in America, the citizens need to serve the authorities.

Thirty police officers arrived last week at the Be'er Sheva home of Elizabeth and Natan, business owners and immigrants from Los Angeles. The officers came there to arrest all of the couple's four sons for army desertion - the latest stop in an absorption process gone amiss.

That day, the officers arrested two siblings, who are now in military prisons. Police are still searching for the remaining two brothers. Natan - who asked his last name be withheld from this article - says that his sons' desertion was the result of the state's failure to integrate them into Israeli society.

"I told them they would become Israelis before they know it," he says about his four army-age sons. "But in high school they never even got the hang of the Hebrew language. I'll never forgive myself for what I've done to them by bringing them here. If they leave the country when this is over, I'll understand, sell the business and come with them."

http://www.haaretz.com/magazine/anglo-file/aliyah-of-u-s-family-goes-sour-as-sons-arrested-for-idf-desertion-1.290326

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. This was stupidity on the part of the parents

What were they thinking moving 4 teenage boys to a country they KNOW has mandatory IDF service when the boys don't even speak the language?

3 years is NOT enough time for teenagers to adapt to a culture that is extremely unfamiliar to them as Americans.

Poor kids. Something tells me that the 4 of them will be on the first flight out as soon as they get the chance.

[azurnoir]

2. It says in the article that the father is Israeli

and 3 of the children were born in Israel

Natan, who was born in Israel in 1955, met Elizabeth in the native U.S., where she was born, in 1979. They lived there for seven years before immigrating to Israel. They had the triplets here in 1990, but raising them through the Gulf War was "too stressful," according to Natan, and they all went to Los Angeles.

besides there is constant encouragement on the part of Israel for Americans to make Aliyah (immigrate) to Israel and in fact

[Ruby the Liberal]

3. They left Israel when they were ~1.

Returned when they were 15, with no experience of the culture and no command of the language.

Would you be willing to send your teenage sons/daughters to an unknown culture where the only knowledge of said culture is your (or your DH/DW's) stories, no command of the language, and enlist them in the military?

Be honest.