Fitted out in white caps and T-shirts bearing Star of David logos, their expressions a mixture of relief and sorrow, 112 Kosovan refugees found themselves encircled by beaming Israeli dignitaries on the tarmac of Ben-Gurion International Airport yesterday afternoon.
The timing of their arrival - Israel's gesture to assuage the suffering of Kosovo's displaced ethnic Albanians - could not have been more appropriate. Today is Holocaust memorial day, filled with ceremonies commemorating the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis.
The new arrivals were chosen by Israeli and UN representatives at the Brazda refugee camp in Macedonia, whittled down from 200 who responded to loud-hailer announcements that a safe haven for some was available in Israel. No individual refugees were brought, just extended families - 17 in all.
Getting on a bus at the camp, at the start of the journey, one man was asked whether he was happy to be going to Israel. Neither happy nor unhappy, he mumbled, then gestured hopelessly at the mass of homeless humanity behind him. "But there is nothing for me here. I am from Pristina."
The refugees have been given tourist visas and the same financial aid package accorded Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union. They will live at a kibbutz field school, learn Hebrew, and, theoretically, have the right to stay on permanently. Thirty of 84 Bosnian refugees who came here six years ago are currently awaiting citizenship.
Israel has also sent 100 tons of medical and other aid. Part of the assistance has been financed by public donations, in contrast with the sour reaction of the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, to the crisis.
While Mr Sharon has spoken of his sorrow at the plight of the Kosovo refugees, he has pointedly refused to support the NATO bombardment. Indeed, Mr Sharon has been warning of the dangers of the creation of an Islamic "Greater Albania", in which Islamic extremists might thrive, destabilising the immediate region and countries further afield. He has also reportedly expressed fears of a future NATO strike at Israel, were the Jewish state to deny its Arab minority autonomous rights - but his aides have denied the accuracy of these reports.
What cannot be denied is that, throughout this crisis, Mr Sharon has been in close contact with the Russian authorities.