@dpt – That’s an interesting way of phrasing their order of priorities. I think it’s unfortunately true. 😛
On the subject of renouncing Israeli Citizenship, Israelis in consulates seem to like taking forever in getting the process done. They go around acting all indignant that anyone would *gasp* not want to be an Israeli citizen. It takes a lot of prodding; if you go through the process, just have faith in Hashem that there’ll be a light at the end of this veeeeeery long tunnel. They eventually have to do it, even if you prod them for months, but I believe your job is done once you submitted your papers and handed in your Israeli passport and the like.
If you’re just under 16, I think they like to dilly-dally until you turn army enlistment age so they can pressure you about doing service. If you JUST turned 16, I’d make it very, very clear that your birthday was just the other day, week etc, and you applied to get this whole thing over with a long time before.
By the way, has anyone with renounced citizenship had negative experiences “returning” to Israel as tourists? Was anyone ever or discriminated against due to their status and/or detained from leaving the airport, such as because the databases there weren’t updated with your citizenship status?