MK Tzipi Hotoveley: You have no idea what you are talking about  

Recent remarks by MK Hotoveley that Americans have it easy because they don’t send their children off to fight for their country displays the ignorance of some Israeli as to what life is about in the rest of the world.

In the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns, 37 children of Americans were killed in battle.  Their details follow so that the good MK can understand that we are speaking about real people here:

1. Mark A. Evnin, US Marine Corps, killed April 3, 2003, after sustaining two machinegun bullet wounds during crossfire in Iraq. He was 21 years old.
2. Jeffrey M. Wershow, US Army, killed July 6, 2003, when he was shot in Baghdad during military operations. He was 22 years old.
3. 1st Lt. David R. Bernstein, (‘Silver Star’), graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, US Army, killed October 18, 2003, in Taza, Iraq. He was 24 years old.
4. Jacob S. Fletcher, US Army, killed in Samara, Iraq, on November 13, 2003, when a makeshift bomb struck a bus on which he was a passenger. He was 28 years old.
5. Marc S. Seiden, US Army, killed on January 2, 2004, during an ambush in Baghdad, three weeks before he was due to come home. He was 26 years old.
6. 2nd Lt. Seth J. Dvorin, US Army, killed February 3, 2004, trying to dismantle a makeshift bomb near Iskandariyah, Iraq, where dozens of troops had been killed. He was the only soldier killed in the blast. He was 24 years old.
7. Elijah Tai Wah Wong, US Air Force with prior service in the Golani Brigade, IDF, killed February 9, 2004, in Iraq, while defusing a bomb. He was 42 years old.
8. Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan B. Bruckenthal, US Coast Guard, killed April 24, 2004, in a suicide attack in the Northern Persian Gulf. He was 24 years old.
9. Dustin H. Schrage, US Marine Corps, his body was found May 6, 2004, after the soldier disappeared with his team May 3 while swimming across the Euphrates River in the Al Anbar province. Another Marine drowned during the same mission. Schrage was 20 years old.
10. Alan D. Sherman, US Marine Corps, killed June 29, 2004, by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. He was 36 years old.
11. Lance Cpl. Mark E. Engel, US Marine Corps, died July 21, 2004 in a Texas hospital the day before his 22nd birthday after suffering burns on 70% of his body in a battle in Al Anbar province. He was 21 years old.
12. Michael Y. Tarlavsky, US Army, killed August 12, 2004, when his unit was attacked in Najaf, Iraq. He was 30 years old.
13. 1st Lt. Andrew K. Stern, US Marine Corps, killed September 16, 2004, in the Al Anbar province in Iraq. He was 24 years old.
14. Foster L. Harrington, US Marine Corps, killed September 20, 2004, by enemy action in the Al Anbar province. He was 31 years old.
15. Corporal Michael R. Cohen, US Marine Corps, killed November 22, 2004, by enemy action in Fallujah, Iraq. He was 23 years old.
16. Petty Officer 3rd Class John D. House, US Navy, killed January 26, 2005, when the helicopter carrying him and 30 Marines crashed in a sandstorm near Rutbah, Iraq. He was 28 years old.
17. Daniel J. Freeman, US Army, killed in a helicopter crash April 6, 2005, along with 15 other soldiers. He was not scheduled to be on board the supply flight to Kandahar, but had volunteered for a friend. He was 20 years old.
18. Steven M. Budeysky, US Army, killed May 19, 2005, in Iraq. The circumstances behind his death have not been revealed. He was 27 years old.
19. Benyahmin B. Yahudah, US Army, killed July 13, 2005, in a suicide bombing in Baghdad while giving out candy to Iraqi children. He was 24 years old.
20. Howard P. Allen, US Army, killed September 26, 2005, in Baghdad when his vehicle was struck by a makeshift bomb. He was 31 years old.
21. Airman 1st Class Elizabeth N. Jacobson. US Air Force, killed September 28, 2005, when her vehicle made contact with an improvised explosive device near Safwan at the Iraq and Kuwait border. She was 21 years old.
22. Colin J. Wolfe, US Marine Corps, killed August 30, 2006, during combat operations in the Al Anbar province in Iraq. He was buried on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, in Arlington National Cemetery. He was 19 years old.
23. Robert M. Secher, US Marine Corps, killed October 8, 2006, during operations in Al Anbar province in Iraq. He was 33 years old.
24. 1st Lt. Nathan M. Krissoff, US Army, killed December 9, 2006, during combat operations in the Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was 25 years old.
25. Daniel J. Agami, US Army, killed June 21, 2007, by an improvised explosive device in Adhamiya, Iraq. He was 25 years old.
26. Albert Bitton, US Army, killed February 20, 2008, in Baghdad, from wounds suffered when his vehicle hit a makeshift bomb the previous day. He was 20 years old.
27. Stuart A. Wolfer, US Army, killed April 6, 2008, when his unit was attacked by insurgents in Baghdad. He was 36 years old.
28. Mark E. Rosenberg, US Army, killed April 8, 2008, in Baghdad when his vehicle was struck by a makeshift bomb. He was 32 years old.
29. Senior Airman Jonathan A.V. Yelner, US Army, killed April 29, 2008, in Afghanistan when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device. He was 24 years old.
30. 1st Lt. Daniel Farkas, US Army, killed July 4, 2008, at Camp Phoenix in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was 42 years old.
31. Robert M. Weinger, US Army, killed March 15, 2009, near Bati Kot, Afghanistan, when his vehicle struck an explosive device. He was 24 years old.
32. Army Reserve Lt. Col. Shawn M. Pine, US Army, killed on May 20, 2009, in the same attack that killed 1st Lt. Roslyn L. Schulte when their vehicle struck an explosive device near Kabul, Afghanistan. He is buried next to his father in Arlington National Cemetery. He was 51 years old.
33. 1st Lt. Roslyn L. Schulte, US Air Force, graduate of the US Air Force Academy, killed in the same attack as Army Reserve Lt. Col. Shawn M. Pine. She was 25 years old.
34. Aaron E. Fairbairn, US Army, killed on July 4, 2009, when insurgents attacked his base in eastern Afghanistan. He was 20 years old.
35. Benjamin A. Sklaver, US Army, killed on October 2, 2009, in Murcheh, Afghanistan when his Civil Affairs unit was attacked by a suicide bomber. He was 32 years old.
36. Lance Cpl. Jeremy M. Kane, US Marine Corps, killed on January 23, 2010, while supporting combat operations in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. He was 22 years old.
37. Miroslav Zilberman, US Navy, killed on March 31, 2010. He was 31 years old.

As a veteran of the US Army myself, having served on active duty (but not in combat) as a Signal Officer, I can attest to the fact that plenty of us who grew up in America chose to volunteer to defend our country and take the risk of putting our lives on the line for freedom.

Having lived in Israel for almost 34 years I appreciate the higher existential risk that accompanies living here vs. living in the US.  Nevertheless, there is no reason in the world for any member of the Israeli government to demean the sacrifice that Jews living in the diaspora are also willing to make to protect their freedom and democracy.

The parents of these men and women, as well as, in some cases, the spouses and children left behind, have surely paid a high price for the “easy life” that MK Hotoveley described as the American condition.   Shame on her for being so callous.

The good MK should check her facts before speaking or simply learn to keep her mouth shut in order not to advertise her ignorance on a subject to the entire world.