{"id":31593,"date":"2024-03-09T20:48:25","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T20:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/?post_type=news&#038;p=31593"},"modified":"2024-03-19T12:38:06","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T12:38:06","slug":"graduates-of-onos-program-for-people-on-the-autistic-spectrum-fulfill-critical-missions-in-israels-iron-swords-war","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/news\/graduates-of-onos-program-for-people-on-the-autistic-spectrum-fulfill-critical-missions-in-israels-iron-swords-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduates of Ono\u2019s Program for People on the Autistic Spectrum Fulfill Critical Missions in Israel\u2019s Iron Swords War"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\">\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-31594 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/03\/roim-rachok-2.24.jpg\" alt=\"Roim Rachok Program\" width=\"628\" height=\"352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/03\/roim-rachok-2.24.jpg 628w, https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/03\/roim-rachok-2.24-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 628px) 100vw, 628px\" \/><\/figure>\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\r\n<h3><strong>Graduates of Ono\u2019s Program for People on the Autistic Spectrum Fulfill Critical Missions in Israel\u2019s Iron Swords War<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Israel\u2019s Channel 12 News aired a special segment and published an accompanying article highlighting the graduates of Ono Academic College\u2019s \u201cSeeing Far\u201d Program and their contributions to the Iron Swords War.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The \u201cSeeing Far\u201d Program, founded by Mossad veterans, trains people with autism to acquire the skills needed to join the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and use their particular talents to carry out critical missions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>There are about 150 soldiers currently serving in the IDF through Ono\u2019s \u201cRo&#8217;im Rachok\u201d program.\u00a0 The program works with the army to place autistic people in sensitive military positions in order to utilize their particular sets of skills that provide them with comparative advantages. While many autistic teenagers are exempt from military service, Ono\u2019s \u201cRo&#8217;im Rachok\u201d allows them to sign up as volunteers. The program has recruited more than 300 soldiers into the IDF who serve in 27 different units. Some of these soldiers\u2019 preliminary training takes place on Ono\u2019s campus before they begin their service, like the electronics training course, which takes four months.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>In the Channel 12 segment, one of the program\u2019s graduates describes a highlight of his service in the Iron Swords War, saying, &#8220;I managed to discover tunnel shafts near a large hospital in the Gaza Strip.&#8221;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Another graduate notes how the army didn\u2019t want to recruit him but he insisted on serving the country anyway. A third describes how his neural makeup allows him to notice militarily-important details that others miss. \u00a0In fact, the segment opens with a description by one of the graduates, who now works in the IDF\u2019s 9900 Visual Intelligence Division, of how he identified an Iranian-built landing strip in Lebanon for launching military unmanned vehicles at Israel. The scene cuts to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant giving a news conference in which he described how the landing strip was discovered and later destroyed, showing video from the mission.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The program\u2019s founder summarizes, \u201cThese are the best soldiers I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>To watch the segment and read the full article, click here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mako.co.il\/news-military\/2024_q1\/Article-5f121dae87ddd81027.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.mako.co.il\/news-military\/2024_q1\/Article-5f121dae87ddd81027.htm<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Israel\u2019s Channel 12 News aired a special segment and published an accompanying article highlighting the graduates of Ono Academic College\u2019s \u201cSeeing Far\u201d Program and their contributions to the Iron Swords War.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":31594,"menu_order":230,"template":"","class_list":["post-31593","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categories_news-updates_news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ono.ac.il\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}