How Can an American Service Member Support Israel?

I’m sure this is a ubiquitous experience for Jews in the military: Israel conducts some sort of military activity, and we are specifically sought out by our peers for our opinion. Some of us have two lives…our synagogue and Jewish community lives, where we buy Israel Bonds or support JNF, perhaps have even taken a Birthright trip in our youths. In lives where we interact more with non-Jews, particularly in our military spheres, some of us may suppress our vocal support and wait until asked.

Sometimes questions of dual-loyalty arise, in the shadow of Pollard and, sadly, the case of Tenenbaum referenced in an earlier post. For Jewish personnel working with sensitive information, the questions aren’t necessarily unfair.

In some cases, I know many of us feel isolated. Our congregations and communities hold prayers for troops in the IDF; American Jewish service members often don’t enjoy the same support that the American Jewish community levels at Israeli troops. A good friend expressed to me that while he was doing the same kind of house-to-house fighting in Iraq while the 2006 Lebanon war was underway, his synagogue had little interest in what he was doing.

This is a topic I’d like to discuss in the comments, not to debate the current operations, but to discuss how we, as Jewish members of the US Armed Forces reconcile support for a Jewish state with our unique situation.