DANIEL CROOK: Um, look, she's obviously gonna really miss me.

TOM TILLEY: So how does your mum feel about you going to Israel?

DANIEL CROOK: Um, look, she's obviously gonna really miss me.

TOM TILLEY: 24-year-old Daniel Crook is another young Zionist about to emigrate to Israel and pacifism is central to his beliefs.

DANIEL CROOK: I am choosing to work towards a reality where - in Israel where violence is no longer an answer and where the Israeli Defence Forces may not even need to exist. And I want to affect Israeli society from a very grassroots level and have I s'pose an uprising of positive moral values that can change the face of Israeli society.

TOM TILLEY: Last weekend, around 100 Zionist youth leaders met at a camp near Ballarat. 

Did it unsettle you much, watching the conflict on TV knowing that you'd be there in a few weeks?

SAM GOSLING: Um, it was a little worrying, but really it doesn't change that I want to go there. If anything, I want to go there more.

TOM TILLEY: This will be Sam Gosling's last camp in Australia. The 20-year-old has already booked his ticket to Israel. He leaves in less than three weeks. 

Are you willing to risk your life for it?

SAM GOSLING: Yeah. I am putting my life on the line for Israel. I've made that decision, that it is worth it for such an incredible place that I will join the Army for it.

LEIGH SALES: Tom Tilley reporting.

7 30 ABC TV

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 28/11/2012

Reporter: Tom Tilley

Despite the Middle East ceasefire, some young Australians are preparing to join the Israeli Defence Force for any future conflict with the recent violence increasing their enthusiasm.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The Middle East ceasefire is a week old, but young Jewish Australians are preparing to go and join the Israeli Defence Force.

They're leaving the security of their lives here to risk everything to support the Jewish state of Israel. 

Tom Tilley from Triple J's Hack program reports.

TOM TILLEY, REPORTER: For eight days this month, southern Israel and Gaza were consumed by ferocious warfare. 

14,000 kilometres away, a young Australian was training to take his part in any future battles. 

So Ben, how fit will you need to be to be in the Israeli Defence Force?

BEN MILSTON: I imagine pretty fit. Trying to build up, you know, the strength and core and everything, so, gotta get prepared.

TOM TILLEY: Ben Milston wants to be a combat soldier in the Israeli Army. It's ambition that'll put him on the frontline of an ongoing and bitter conflict. He says it's his way of supporting Israel.

BEN MILSTON: It's one of those things that what are you willing to give up or what are you willing to, you know, die for?

TOM TILLEY: Ben works in a Jewish cafe in Bondi and lives a comfortable life, so leaving friends and family to take up arms for the Jewish state wasn't a part of his life plan. But a gap year in Israel changed that.

BEN MILSTON: I guess I realised how comfortable I am being with other Jewish people, other people that might have, you know, the same emotions or experiences that it's just I guess a really nice connection to be with your own people.

TOM TILLEY: That sense of connection made him want to live in Israel permanently. Ben believes that comes with responsibilities.

BEN MILSTON: If I wanted to live in that country then I wanted to do my bit to try and defend it as well.

TOM TILLEY: Ben's at the weekly leaders' meeting of his Zionist youth movement. His group organise activities and Jewish education programs for teenagers in the hope that they'll actively support Israel.

These young Zionists believe the state of Israel is central to Jewish life.

BEN MILSTON: Are you Jewish first? Are you Australian first? type thing and I guess for me, I'm Jewish first.

(male voiceover, video footage from Jewish Agency for Israel): You shall inherit and you shall settle. The moment you step foot off that plane, you inherited a land.

TOM TILLEY: There's a long tradition of Jews leaving their home countries and moving to Israel. It's called making Aliyah. Young Australian Jews have embraced it. In the past four years more than 400 have made the move. Most have done compulsory military service.

REUBEN BOLAFFI, AUSTRALASIAN ZIONIST YOUTH COUNCIL: When people decide to make Aliyah, it's based on their age whether they have to do have to serve. So for women under the age of 22, they will have to serve for some period and for men under the age of 26, they'll have to serve.

TOM TILLEY: Reuben Bolaffi overseas Australia's youth Zionist organisations. He says the recent conflict has strengthened the resolve young Australian Zionists to support the Jewish homeland.

REUBEN BOLAFFI: They have a vision of how they want to see Israel and part of the vision means that they want to go and build a state to how they want it to be and I think that the recent Gaza conflict could perhaps only increase that desire.

TOM TILLEY: So how does your mum feel about you going to Israel?

DANIEL CROOK: Um, look, she's obviously gonna really miss me.

TOM TILLEY: 24-year-old Daniel Crook is another young Zionist about to emigrate to Israel and pacifism is central to his beliefs.

DANIEL CROOK: I am choosing to work towards a reality where - in Israel where violence is no longer an answer and where the Israeli Defence Forces may not even need to exist. And I want to affect Israeli society from a very grassroots level and have I s'pose an uprising of positive moral values that can change the face of Israeli society.

TOM TILLEY: Last weekend, around 100 Zionist youth leaders met at a camp near Ballarat. 

Did it unsettle you much, watching the conflict on TV knowing that you'd be there in a few weeks?

SAM GOSLING: Um, it was a little worrying, but really it doesn't change that I want to go there. If anything, I want to go there more.

TOM TILLEY: This will be Sam Gosling's last camp in Australia. The 20-year-old has already booked his ticket to Israel. He leaves in less than three weeks. 

Are you willing to risk your life for it?

SAM GOSLING: Yeah. I am putting my life on the line for Israel. I've made that decision, that it is worth it for such an incredible place that I will join the Army for it.

LEIGH SALES: Tom Tilley reporting.