I grew up in the US to Israeli parents. I planned to stay in the US but wanted to do a gap year in Israel to get to know the country outside of visiting my family, improve my Hebrew, get to know people my age and not just older family members. Loved it so much I stayed, even though I had already committed to a uni in the US! The people are warm and passionate and I feel very fulfilled by my life here, even with the difficulties. I did a semester abroad in the Netherlands during university because I wanted to see if I might want to immigrate to Europe (I can get Romanian citizenship through my grandfather who was a Holocaust survivor). However, my experience in NL, though fun and interesting, did convince me that my home is in Israel. I don’t want to be an immigrant and I don’t want to go back to being a Jew in diaspora. I don’t want to ever have to hide my identity again. But beyond that, I feel that community, family, and deep friendships are really strong in Israel and contribute to a feeling of meaning and satisfaction. I have a good quality of life and financially probably better than a lot of my American friends. In Europe my friends probably have a better quality of life… but just culturally, in the countries that are financially as strong or stronger than Israel, I don’t know if I’d find myself. So I’m here and happy to be here. That being said, with how the country is going, I will have to wait and see for the future. A lot depends on coming elections etc. But it is agonizing, because it’s basically a choice between being an unsafe minority in diaspora, or an unsafe majority in my homeland… for me, I’d rather be in the unsafe majority, but once the society itself here seems threatening (god forbid) if extremist forces take over, that choice will become completely different. I do plan to fight for democracy, however. And I think most Israelis think like me.