Jerusalem – A 24 year-old, New York-born Jewish man, Izzy Ezagui, has overcome mountains of adversity including; citizenship, language barriers, the loss of his left arm, and a sea of military red tape in order to fulfill his dream of returning to active duty in Israel’s Special Forces Paratrooper Unit—making him the first soldier ever to return to active duty after losing a limb.
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FOX NEWS (http://bit.ly/10tmoi5) is reporting that Ezagui’s dream of serving in the IDF took shape after he and his family, who were visiting Israeli celebrating his bar mitzvah, narrowly escaped harm in the 2001 suicide bombing in a Jerusalem pizzeria that claimed the lives of 13 Israelis, while wounding 130.
Ezagui said the event affected him so deeply, that he applied for dual citizenship upon turning 18 in 2007, and joined the IDF as a volunteer.
Ezagui subsequently enlisted, and was eventually called to active duty where he lost his left arm in a mortar attack while serving with his unit in “Operation Cast Lead” on the Gaza border in 2008.
Unable to shake an unrelenting “calling” to return to duty, Ezagui persevered months of intensive training, and a seemingly endless succession of rejections when applying for re-instatement, including personal meetings with generals and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It should be noted that the US Armed Forces have retained on active duty, soldiers who have lost limbs in combat, for years.
Gd bless him. A brave Jew.
Our nation stands on his shoulders.
Do you guys really believe that hashem wants we should do all what israel is doing fighting against the whole world while we are in gulos ??
this is the biggest chilell hashem ever
Yes, I DO believe Hashem wants Israel to do all that its’ doing. Hashem doesn’t want another CHURBAN!
My heart goes out for him
He is the second one. An Israeli fighter pilot was shot down over Syria. (Yom kippur war?) When the Syrians captured him they placed a rifle against his leg and fired. In captivity he was not allowed a doctor and the leg became infected. When he was IAF returned, the leg was amputated. He later returned to the IAF and flew cargo aircraft. The story was recounted in Chail Avir Magazine 20 years ago.