Deputy minister meets with Israeli woman who fought ISIS

Ayoub Kara said that he gathered information from Rosenberg on Islamic State in Syria.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON
Updated: JULY 15, 2015 13:52
Gill Rosenberg at the Knesset
Acting Regional Cooperation Minister Ayoub Kara (Likud) met in the Knesset on Tuesday with the Canadian-Israeli woman who went to help Syria’s Kurds fight Islamic State.
Gill Rosenberg, a 31-year-old IDF veteran, returned to Israel on Sunday after eight months. Kara said he had gathered information from her about Islamic State in Syria.
He suggested that she visit the Western Wall, and Rosenberg said she would do so later that day.
Kara also said Rosenberg had agreed to accompany him to the Hebron area to show support for soldiers and Israelis after their meeting.
Regarding her motivation to go to Syria, Rosenberg told Army Radio on Monday that “I think we as Jews, we say, ‘Never again,’ for the Holocaust, and I take it to mean not just for Jewish people, but for anyone, for any human being, especially a helpless woman or child in Syria or Iraq.”
She added, however, that “in the past few weeks, I think a lot of the dynamics have changed there, in terms of what’s going on in the war. The Iranian involvement is a lot more pronounced. Things changed enough that I felt that it was time to come home.”
In 2009, Rosenberg was arrested in Israel over an international phone scam and extradited to the United States, where she served time in prison. Yahel Ben-Oved, one of her lawyers, said Rosenberg won early release in 2013 on condition that she remain paroled either on US or Israeli soil.
“I believe she may have violated this by going to Syria,” Ben-Oved told Reuters. “This could be a problem for her.”
US officials said they were looking into the case.
In a Channel 2 interview on Monday, Rosenberg said she had gone to Syria as a way of “seeking redemption...for my past.” She said she had “wanted to turn my life around and do something good for a change.”
Reuters contributed to this report.