Thank you for your replies @rdeng2614 and @SlitheyTove !
@rdeng2614 : I am aware that getting into these highly-selective schools is a very challenging and sometimes frustrating task, and it is for that very reason that even the slightest difference in my chances of admission is so valuable. Nonetheless, I intend to do everything in my power and will simply have to hope for the best.
I too have come across the statistics that you mentioned, but I found very little on how these general admission statistics work in respect to international students (and even less so regarding Israeli students in particular).
Do you think that the fact that my grandfather is a Columbia alumnus makes any difference? Would it mean that I have a better chance with Columbia than I might at Cornell?
@SlitheyTove I’d love to know which character you are referring to 
. I have indeed run the Net Price Calculators and as far as I can tell it shouldn’t be too much of a problem (75K-100K income bracket), but I can always take one of those infamous loans if push comes to shove. As for safety schools - I will include either one or two of these in the RD rounds (still undecided regarding which ones to chose). That said, I probably won’t attend either of them even if I get rejected from my reaches, as they would most likely offer an education of comparable quality to that of the local Israeli universities; in that situation, I would rather save my money for my graduate degree.
It is true that I would most likely be happier in a university that has a significant population of students with military experience and/or Israelis, but I personally feel that this might be more relevant in a situation where I were lucky enough to be accepted to more than one of my reaches and had to choose which one to attend. At this point in time, I feel that my top priority should be getting into ANY of these top-schools during the EA/ED round, as it is not very likely for me to be accepted during the RD rounds.
Still looking for more opinions, any will be most welcome