US-Israeli Citizen Fights Deployment

[unhappycamper]

US-Israeli Citizen Fights Deployment
December 15, 2008
Military.com

A U.S. Army Reservist who holds Israeli citizenship is fighting orders for deployment to Afghanistan, reaching out to Israeli and U.S. diplomatic officials to prevent what her husband says would be "unnecessarily dangerous and irrational" duty, according to an Israeli newspaper report.

Gigi Banjak, a senior noncommissioned officer in the Reserves, is currently in Kuwait but slated to head to Afghanistan, the newspaper Haaretz reported.

Banjak, 55, joined the Reserve in 1976, her husband, Ron, told the paper. The two emigrated four years ago from Pennsylvania to Israel, where they are known as Ariel and Orli Avior.

Her husband told Haaretz that Banjak was told in October to report for duty with an infantry unit in Iraq, a country that Israeli citizens are legally forbidden to enter, according to Haaretz. Those orders were subsequently changed to Afghanistan, though not because of her Israeli citizenship, the paper reported.

He said his wife hoped she would be reassigned elsewhere once she explained that she was an Israeli citizen, but the request was denied.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/us-israeli-citizen-fights-deployment.html?col=1186032310810&wh=news

[cosmik debris]

1. Stories like this trouble me.

On the one hand, I'm a pacifist and I support the refusal to fight in illegal, immoral wars.

On the other hand, she volunteered and accepted the benefits for 30 yrs. Now she doesn't want to do what she was already paid to do. There must be some consequences for that. No other employer would allow a person to ride the benefits train for 30 yrs. and then refuse to perform the duties that earned those benefits.

[Crowman1979]

2. What does it matter?

She's fighting for Israel either way you look at it.