A ONE WAY FLIGHT is the name that Channel 11 gave to its video profile of a prominent Israeli couple who are leaving, for good.

The issue of emigration is becoming a hot topic in Israel. In the press — Hebrew as well as English — reports of record high emigration are rampant. Sit in cafés with friends whose kids are reservist-age, and you hear it again and again:

That amount of reserve duty is not sustainable. The kids are cracking. Marriages are breaking. Businesses are collapsing. Academic degrees are not progressing. Life this way is simply not possible.

I’ve lost count of the number of our friends’ kid — the closest circles as well as those more spread out — who’re taking a year, or two, or three. It’s not that it’s hard to blame them — it’s utterly impossible to blame them.

Here’s what the Times of Israel reported in the story headlined above:

A record-setting wave of emigration from Israel continued in 2025, with nearly 50,000 Israelis leaving the country for more than 12 months for the third year in a row, according to a report published Monday by researchers at Tel Aviv University.

After about 49,000 Israelis left the country for more than a year in both 2023 and 2024, travel data from the Central Bureau of Statistics indicates the trend likely continued in 2025, Itai Ater, one of the report’s lead authors, told The Times of Israel.

The report argues that Israel’s prolonged military conflict and political tensions have contributed to elevated emigration that could threaten the country’s long-term strategic interests.

Today, we look at this issue through the lens of a video released on Channel 11 a few weeks ago, about a high profile Israeli couple who are moving to Italy, with no intention of returning, because “fascism” is becoming “the norm.” One doesn’t have to agree with their assessment (though only a fool would dismiss it entirely) to realize that something important is happening.

The link to the video follows below. To get English subtitles, click on the

icon on the bottom right, and then, using the “gear” icon for settings, turn on subtitles in YouTube. (This is copyrighted material, so we can’t add the subtitles ourselves.)

Then you can watch the whole video, either with English voice over or English subtitles.

It’s a sad piece, and I certainly do not share the views of this couple, but I hear them and I understand them … and I wish I could disagree with everything that they’re saying. But I can’t.

To understand what’s happening in Israel these days, as much as we not wish to hear it and as much as we may disagree, we need to hear them and to recognize that they are far from alone.

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This profile was the subject of a seething Opinion Piece in Makor Rishon, which took great exception to this couple’s decision, AND to Channel 11’s decision to profile it the way that they did.

We will discuss and link to that opinion piece tomorrow ….