"I decided I'm leaving everything and coming": The young people from France who immigrated alone to become IDF fighters
They landed at Ben Gurion Airport with one suitcase and a great deal of motivation, leaving behind worried families and comfortable lives. In the shadow of rising anti-Semitism and the impact of October 7, the…
Assessment
Young French Jews are leaving comfortable lives behind to enlist in the IDF, arriving in Israel with nothing but a suitcase and determination. The spike in antisemitism and the October 7 attack are the clear catalysts, not abstract Zionism. These are individual choices made under pressure, and the story frames Israel as a sanctuary precisely when it is most dangerous. The central question is whether this wave of lone soldiers will sustain itself if security conditions change or if the antisemitism driving them recedes.