From a decision (No. 19-03737) by Administrative Judge Noreen Lynch on May 27, 2022, reviewing a June 1, 2020 Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency denial of a security clearance.
Applicant is 37 years old…. In 2007, he earned a bachelor's degree of science in mathematics and physics and his doctorate in 2018, both from U.S. universities. Applicant worked for various companies in the United States, on a post doctorate fellowship for a federal government agency, and performed research for that U.S. government agency from 2017 to 2018. He has been employed with his current employer since February 2020, and is sponsored for a security clearance….
Applicant was born in the United States to U.S. parents who are citizens and residents of the United States, but possess dual citizenship with Israel. In 1985, when Applicant was nine months old, his parents moved to Israel because they were idealistic in nature, not because they were unhappy with the United States. Thus, Applicant is a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, and has a U.S. passport and an Israeli passport. Applicant's family had never lived in Israel prior to that time. Any Jewish person is allowed to go to Israel and claim a right of Israeli citizenship. Applicant and his family travelled back to the United States annually and maintained close ties with their extended family, most of whom remain based in America. Applicant is close to his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who reside in the United States. When Applicant was 16, his parents decided it was time to move back to the United States permanently to care for their aging parents.
After Applicant's, graduation from a U.S. undergraduate school in 2007, he felt a longing to return to Israel for the culture of his youth. He wanted to travel around Europe and Morocco and wanted to go to Israel for a sense of adventure. He lived with his cousin who is also an immigrant from the United States. He obtained a job in Israel, but was drafted by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from about April 2008 until November 2008. Applicant had the choice to serve this mandatory requirement or be sent to jail. While in the IDF, he served as a truck driver. Applicant has no plans on serving in the IDF in the future, but if drafted, while in Israel, he will have no choice but to serve or be jailed.
During his time in Israel, Applicant enrolled in a two-year master's program at an Israeli Institute of Technology. This Institute is sponsored, in part, by private donations from American Jews. His met his girlfriend, who later became his wife. She is an American citizen and was studying abroad in Israel. He stayed there to be with her. Applicant returned to the United States in 2011. Upon his return to the United States. Applicant did some work and research for U.S. government agencies.
