As Israel fights war against Hamas, several leave South Florida, return to Mideast to fight
MIAMI -- A New York businessman said Tuesday that he is "dropping everything" in order to go to Israel and rejoin the Israel Defense Forces in the wake of an attack on the country by Hamas terrorists.
Isaac Horowitz, 31, who grew up in Brooklyn and now owns an import business, spoke to CBS News Miami before he boarded a flight from Miami International Airport to Tel Aviv.
"I think Israel needs as much help as we can give it right now with everything going on in the world," he said. "I think it is important to help out in any way you can even if it is going there as a medic or going there in therapies where you are going to be talking to families who have had kids kidnapped in Gaza. I am helping out because we are Jewish and we have been kicked out of every country in the world since the beginning of time."
Horowitz said he originally joined the Israel Defense Forces after high school when he was 18 years old and served for two years.
He said he was given approval to rejoin his old unit.
"There is just a feeling when you have brothers and sisters with rockets throwing at them daily and babies murdered and elderly people kidnapped without their medicine," he said. "I will be there as long as needed. I gave up everything and dropped my business and dropped my dogs by somebody. I had business dealings in Costa Rica and I gave that up too."
Among others returning to Israel in the wake of the conflict is Asaf Algari, an Israeli soldier, .
"I am concerned about the situation," he said. "It is a sad situation for the country and my family and I am going back there to protect. I am concerned about the country, the economy, the people."
The Consul General of Israel in Miami said more and more people are joining the fight.
"Hundreds of people have gone from Florida alone as reservists to rejoin the IDF in this dire times," said Maor Elbaz-Starinsky.
Katy Dayan says she has three children in the Israeli military and wants to go home.
"100 percent I want to go home," she said. "My heart is in Israel. I am very sad and very worried. I am so sad, so sad and very worried. I cry all the time."
"I am going home because I want to be there for my family and to help them," said Drop Kazs-Shive. "That's why we are headed home. I am worried about them."
