(ConservativeJournal.org) – Shortly after Hamas attacked Israel in brutal fashion on October 7, it found itself on the other end of an Israeli war declaration. In times of peace, the Jewish state has just shy of 170,000 active duty troops it can call upon, the majority of which are fulfilling their national service contracts.
Israeli men are required to serve around 32 months on average and their female counterparts have a two-year obligation. In times of emergency, Israel Defense Forces can call up their reservists, most of whom are retainable for service well into their forties. Following the Knesset’s recent declaration of war, that’s exactly what they did.
Of the almost 500,000 reserve personnel the Jewish nation has the ability to activate, about 360,000 have been told to report for duty. An enormous chunk of those are dual-citizens and among those are many American Jews. For the sake of reference, about 10% of Israel’s population of 9.3 million is said to hold two different passports.
Numbers aside, ex-soldiers with combat experience have few ways to apply their military skills in the civilian world. One such option can however be found in Los Angeles doing bodyguard work for celebrities. Enter Oded Krashinsky, a 54-year-old dual-citizen ex-IDF soldier who has built a career in Hollywood guarding the rich and famous.
He is among a score of former Israeli soldiers-turned-bodyguards who have chosen to return to Israel and contribute to the nation’s fight. Following his service in Israeli special forces, Krashinsky built a successful security operation in Tinseltown protecting clients like Nicole Kidman.
Unlike many of the other reservists who have been called back, he was not officially activated. Krashinsky volunteered to return and was back in Israel training troops as soon as he could find a flight to Tel Aviv.
Elsewhere in the entertainment industry, Taylor Swift’s ex-IDF bodyguard has also reportedly chosen to voluntarily return to service in Israel.
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