This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
GOLAN – As Israel's seven-front war approaches 470 days and with more than 800 IDF soldiers and security forces killed, the tiny Jewish state has been stretched thin. Hamas has been all but eliminated in Gaza, and likewise, Hezbollah in Lebanon. The murderous Assad regime in Syria fell with minimal action by the IDF, but solutions for what comes after are still a quandary and the path to any kind of lasting peace is still unclear.
While morale remains high among the troops, many reserve soldiers have been away from their families and careers with little respite for a year and a half. This has taken a personal toll on the lives of Israeli civilians and soldiers.
Many Israelis have compared the current conflict with the 1973 Yom Kippur War when Israel's security establishment was caught off guard and forced to pay a heavy price in a multi-front war for the country's survival. Other similarities reflecting the mental state and attitude of Israelis are becoming apparent.
One symptom common to both wars is emigration. Immigration to Israel is referred to as "Aliyah," literally "ascending," hinting at the perception that moving to Israel is a spiritual ascension. Conversely, emigration is referred to as "Yeridah" or "descending."
The Central Bureau of Statistics reported that last year, immigration to Israel, compared to emigration, represented a net loss of 18,200. In 2024, 82,700 residents left Israel, and only 23,800 returned. The number of new immigrants to the country was 32,800, about 15,000 lower than in 2023. In total, during 2024, the population of Israel grew by 1.1 percent, a decrease in the growth rate compared to 2023 (1.6 percent).
Some 117,000 Israeli citizens have left the country for an extended period and have stopped living in Israel since the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023 – a figure three times higher than from previous years.
According to the data, more Israelis emigrated from Tel Aviv and Haifa, considered secular enclaves, than from any other city.
The country has experienced several waves of emigration associated with wars. In the 1960s, Israel was hit with a crippling recession, leading to a period of increased emigration. The 1967 Six-Day War followed this wave. The most significant wave of emigration in Israeli history followed the Yom Kippur War. This has been attributed to a national trauma intensified by the belief that the government and military establishment failed the nation.
Once the war is over, Israel will need to cope with the economic repercussions of a protracted conflict.
One mitigating factor to emigration might be the high inflation and unemployment in Europe, the U.S., and Canada. This is exacerbated by the preceding period of COVID which also taxed the economy with shutdowns and restrictions.
Shimon (not his real name) has experienced this difficult period firsthand. He is a religious and strongly Zionist husband and father in his 30s. He served in the IDF at 18, completing a course for religious soldiers called Hesder that incorporated periods of learning interspersed with combat service. He also volunteered for a year of "shlichut," acting as an emissary in the U.S. to educate Jews and connect them with Israel. In total, Shimon served six years in the IDF. After his service, he learned Arabic at university, going on to work for the government as a liaison with the Arab community.
His language skills were of enormous value to the IDF, and he became an intelligence officer in the reserves, embedded in a combat unit. On Oct.7, even before the IDF called, Shimon drove to the southern border to join his unit. He described the disorganization which characterized the first days of the war with Gaza.
"In the beginning, things were crazy," Shimon said. "We didn't know for the first 24 hours or so what was really going on. I had no idea what was going on down south, and if I had known what was going on, there is a good chance I would have gotten my gun from a unit and just driven down there, in which case, there is a good chance I wouldn't be alive right now."
"Thankfully, I followed the plans we had set up, and I went to where the army told me to go in times of emergency and join my assigned unit. But many of the guys in my unit just went down and fought."
Shimon's job was to interrogate prisoners and pass on the information to his officers, a function which kept him busy night and day for several months. Shimon estimates that he has been home for three weeks in the more than 450 days since the war began.
