New Yorker Noy Leyb was watching footage of Hamas terrorists infiltrating Israel in his Upper East Side apartment on Saturday when he decided to embark for the Middle East and volunteer to serve in their elite unit in the Israel Defense Forces.
“No one expects me to go; my commanders even said there are no expectations because I’m not in the country,” Leyb told the Post. “For me, there is no doubt. My heart is in Israel. There is no chance of anything stopping me from returning.”
As co-founder and COO of startup BachPlace, a smart booking platform for group travel, Leyb had to hastily cancel meetings and get together and “live my normal American life.” But he didn’t think twice about the decision.
“That’s on hold, for now and who knows for how long,” Leyb, 32, said of his career and personal life. “Maybe within a day, a week or months. “I’m leaving here on a one-way ticket and I’m not sure when I’ll be back.”
New Yorker Noy Leyb volunteered to serve in his elite unit in the Israel Defense Forces.noyleb/Instagram Leyb said there was “no question” about returning to service, although he was not expected to do so. Noy Leyb/Facebook
He spent the first part of Saturday trying to book the first flight to the Jewish homeland and got the midnight flight.
“I was yelling at the ticket agent why she couldn’t get me an earlier flight,” he said. “I don’t even know what I packed or what I’m going with, but I just need myself and that’s it.”
Upon arrival, the reservist who first enlisted in the IDF in 2009 at age 18, prepares for a battle.
Leyb first enlisted in the IDF in 2009, when he was 18 years old. Noy Leyb/Facebook
“This is not an operation; I hope to go to war,” he said.
Leyb called the IDF “the most moral army in the world,” and described how the military “literally warns terrorists that we are coming and tells them to move before we neutralize a threat.”
“We value the wives of women, children and innocent civilians,” he said, noting that Israeli soldiers take terrorists to the hospital for treatment, and contrasting Hamas, which “places rockets under schools and uses women and children like human beings”. shields.”
Leyb is co-founder and COO of the startup BachPlace. Noy Leyb/Facebook Leyb canceled meetings, events and his “normal American life” to return to his country to serve. noyleb/Instragrama
The brutal nature of Saturday’s surprise attack, “the savagery, the inhumanity, it’s like we were in a dream,” he said of the images, which include kidnappings and bodies of young and old paraded to play sports.
“This is what you see in the craziest action movies. But it is happening right now.”
He is not naïve about the danger that lies ahead, but he is unwavering in his determination to face it: “I’m not going to lie, I’m afraid. I am nervous.”
In the final moments before his flight into the unknown, Leyb, his voice breaking, said he gathered his Star of David necklace, his kippah and his prayer book for the journey. She called her parents, said a prayer and “enjoyed the last moments of civilization.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn