By Manny Frishberg, JTNews Correspondent
Gary Elsberry looks at Israel as the front line in the world’s war on terrorism. Elsberry, an Osage Indian living in Bellingham, is a Baptist. Like many Christians, he views the survival of the state of Israel as more than a religious issue, but even more than that, he said he wants to be on the side of what’s right.
“I’m not a religious man,” Elsberry said. “It isn’t I’m pro-Jewish or anti-Muslim or anything like that but I know what’s right and what’s wrong. I think that’s the powderkeg right now, that something’s going to happen and we have to be there. I think it’s the right fight for the right reason with the right people and I think we need to be there.”
Elsberry served in the U.S. Army for six years in the 1970s, training armored infantry troops in Guatemala and at home until his unit was called up to await orders to the Middle East. “I wanted to work with them so badly in 1973. I sat on an airstrip out here on McCord Air Force Base for three days during the Yom Kippur War, waiting for orders to go.” he said. “They unloaded our plane and we didn’t get to go.”
After leaving the army he spent a number of years as a tribal police officer in California before moving to Washington to join his son and working as a private security guard. He said he got the idea of visiting Israel last year after he became acquainted with an Israeli woman in an Internet chat-room conversation. She mentioned a program that allowed people to work on a kibbutz for a time as part of a tourist experience.
“Then the politics started getting hot and heavy. Now everybody’s beating the war drum and talking war-talk. So I figured, nobody needs me here, I could certainly be of some help over there in many different departments,” he said.
Beginning around the New Year, Gary Elsberry started sending e-mails to the Israeli government. Asking about the possibility of joining the nation’s military force or volunteering to do some other defense-related work. He did get a response from a division of the IDF, which explained that only people with dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship can legally join the Israeli army and suggesting that he contact the country’s representatives here for information on becoming a civilian volunteer.
According to Amir Sayag, a spokesman for the Israeli consular office in San Francisco, “We’re very appreciative of people that want to help, especially people that want to leave everything and go to fight, and it’s really heartwarming but there is no way to do that.
“We have to remember that fighting in a war, which is what we are doing right now in Israel, requires a lot of training and there’s a lot behind it,” he went on. “Even if that person is very skilled and has a military background, it is going to be very hard for us to absorb him and send him to fight. There are many other ways help, of course, to show solidarity and to show support — but as for sending an American citizen to fight our war? I don’t think we will ever do that.” A State Department spokesman said he did not know of any official policies that would preclude Americans from going to Israel to volunteer.
“What Americans do is really their decision. We really do not have a policy to say, ‘That’s a great thing,’ or ‘That’s not a great thing,’” the State Department spokesman added. “He’s an American citizen and he has a right to do what he wants to do.”
Still, there are many Americans every year looking for ways to contribute their time and energy to support the Jewish state. Sayag said that while there is no official Israeli government agency set up to recruit or coordinate civilian volunteers, there could be some private agencies that work along those lines.
One organization Elsberry said he has found that does exactly that is Sar-El, represented in the United States by Volunteers for Israel, the private group headquartered in New York City that sends about 2,000 volunteers a year to a variety of planned programs that combine work on IDF bases with tours of cultural and archeological sites. Elsberry said he is interested in following up with VFI but the costs are a hurdle he has yet to find a way to overcome. Living on a fixed income of about $850 a month, Elsberry said he has enough to support himself while he is in Israel, but he cannot afford the travel and other expenses, which he estimates will come to almost $2,000.
Founded in 1982 by IDF general Aharon Davidi in response to what was then a critical shortage of personnel, the organization now operates with U.S. offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland and Massachusetts, as well as 20 foreign countries. Bernie Needelman, of their national office, said the organization has sent as many as 80,000 volunteers over the last 20 years
“We don’t do any fighting,” he said. “We do generally what their reserve soldiers do. We do warehouse work, we do cooking, we do repairs — whatever they need.”
Volunteers spend two weeks on rear-guard military facilities handling the kinds of work that can free up active duty soldiers for the more dangerous postings. In addition to providing logistical support, the volunteers save the government money that would otherwise go to supporting reservists called up for duty. After spending two weeks on the base, including one two-day trip to a cultural site, the volunteers spend a week touring Israel in one of several programs suited to their particular interests.
Needleman said VFI accepts volunteers of all ages (over 18) and is open to people of all religions. The costs for the various programs vary from nothing beyond a $150 application fee to $200. Volunteers are also responsible for their own airfare and incidental expenses while in Israel.
Elsberry said he has set up a Web site www.pages.zdnet.com/garywa/, which, while it has not resulted in any offers of financial aid, has gotten a lot of positive responses, especially from other retired military people.