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2 Americans Among Israeli Soldiers Killed in Gaza For Two Slain Americans, Commitment Came Early
(about 7 hours later)
AUSTIN, Tex. — Two Americans, one from Texas and the other from Southern California, were among Israeli soldiers killed on Sunday during fighting in the Gaza Strip. LOS ANGELES — Growing up in this city’s San Fernando Valley, Max Steinberg was a typical American boy, and not a particularly religious one. But after a trip to Israel two years ago, his life took a radical shift: Just a few months after first setting foot in the country, he returned to Israel, determined to become a combat soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, which he did.
Officials from the Israel Defense Forces and the State Department confirmed late Sunday that Max Steinberg, 24, who was from the San Fernando Valley in Southern California, and Nissim Sean Carmeli, 21, of South Padre Island, Tex., were among the 13 Israeli soldiers and at least 60 Palestinians who were killed during the first major ground battle in two weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas. On Sunday, Mr. Steinberg, a 24-year-old sharpshooter with the Golani Brigade, was riding with his unit through Gaza City when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb, and he was killed.
The two soldiers were among about 1,100 Americans who did not grow up in Israel but who are serving in that country’s army, Israeli officials said. “He really connected with everything about Israel,” his younger sister, Paige Steinberg, who accompanied him on his first trip there in 2012, said in a Facebook message. “He worked really hard to be in Golani. He was the strongest person I have ever met, and had the kindest heart.”
Mr. Steinberg, a Golani Brigade sharpshooter, was one of several soldiers killed when their armored personnel carrier struck a mine or a roadside bomb in Gaza City. Mr. Carmeli, a sergeant who was also in the Golani Brigade, was killed in combat in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Consulate in Houston said on its Facebook page. Mr. Steinberg was one of 13 Israeli soldiers, including two Americans, who were killed on Sunday, in what was the deadliest day yet for both sides in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Nissim Sean Carmeli, a sergeant in the Golani Brigade who hailed from Texas, was also killed Sunday, while engaged in combat in the Gaza Strip.
Maya Kadosh, Israel’s Houston-based deputy consul to the Southwest United States, said that Mr. Carmeli’s parents came from Israel about 30 years ago to establish a business on South Padre Island, a resort community on the Gulf Coast. They became part of what she described as a close-knit Jewish community in the area. The two men were among around 1,100 soldiers who serve in the Israeli Army despite not growing up in Israel, officials said, and they had taken disparate journeys from the United States to combat in Gaza. Mr. Carmeli, 21, had long family ties to the country he would eventually fight for.
Because there were no Jewish schools, Mr. Carmeli went to Israel to attend high school, Ms. Kadosh said. He was among a number of young Jewish men from the United States who passionately believed in the Israeli cause and volunteered for military service while retaining the values — and citizenship — of America, she said. His parents moved three decades ago from Israel to South Padre Island, on the Gulf Coast of Texas, where Mr. Carmeli grew up in a tight Jewish community and spent summers at Chabad day and overnight camps. Mr. Carmeli’s parents then decided to move the family back to Israel, where he attended high school, said Rabbi Asher Hecht of Chabad of the Rio Grande Valley, who knew Mr. Carmeli from childhood.  
“All of them have joint citizenship,” Ms. Kadosh said. “They are very proud. They are not less American when they serve in the army. They are more American. They feel they protect the values of the place they came from, and they also protect the values of the state of Israel.” After graduation, he joined the Golani Brigade, an elite unit. Rabbi Hecht said that Mr. Carmeli insisted on going into Gaza with his brigade even though his superior had offered to allow him to stay behind because of a wound on his foot.
Mr. Carmeli’s Facebook page showed the smiling young soldier with his colleagues, many of them clutching their weapons.  “He was very proud to be in the Israeli Army,” Rabbi Hecht said.
“He had great energy, yet had a kind and gentle soul,” Rabbi Asher Hecht of Chabad of the Rio Grande Valley, who is a longtime family friend, told The Associated Press. The Israeli Consulate said on Facebook that “Sean was the youngest of three children, and the only son.”  But Mr. Carmeli always considered South Padre and its famous beaches his home away from home, and planned to return to Texas for college after completing his army service in 2015, said Elroy Mizrachi, 19, a lifelong friend who grew up with Mr. Carmeli in South Padre before they both moved to Israel.
Elroy Mizrachi, 19, was a lifelong friend who grew up with Mr. Carmeli before they went to Israel. “I’m devastated,” Mr. Mizrachi said by telephone from Ra’anana in central Israel, near Tel Aviv. “He was my brother, my best friend, my role model. He’s gone, but he’s never going to be forgotten.” “I’m devastated,” Mr. Mizrachi said. “He was my brother, my best friend, my role model. The future was very bright for him.”
Mr. Mizrachi said that Mr. Carmeli was an “all-around sports guy” who excelled at soccer and basketball. He also played the guitar and loved South Padre’s fabled beaches, which attract thousands of college students during spring break. By contrast, Mr. Steinberg had few obvious ties to the country he would fight for. Rather, his relationship with Israel was a love-at-first-sight affair that began with his trip in 2012 sponsored by Birthright, an organization that pays for young American Jews to visit Israel.
“I’ve never seen that kid without a smile,” said Mr. Mizrachi, an Israeli paratrooper. Growing up in suburban Los Angeles, Mr. Steinberg was always up for a trip to the water park or a game of pickup football. The smallest player on the field, he threw himself around as if he were 200 pounds, friends recalled.
He said that he and Mr. Carmeli went to Israel about five years ago because “we were both Zionist, and we had Zionist values,” but that South Padre remained “our home away from home.” Mr. Carmeli was scheduled to be discharged from the army in February, Mr. Mizrachi said, and he planned to travel and then return to the United States to attend the University of Texas. “He was one funny guy,” Ms. Steinberg said. “He never wanted to harm a thing, saved every little bug growing up. He would pick up other people’s trash and put it in his pockets because he hated littering.”
“That was his dream — to study at U.T. and be a Longhorn,” Mr. Mizrachi said. “The future was very bright for him.” But after high school, friends said, Mr. Steinberg spent a couple of aimless years attending classes at a college near his home in Los Angeles and working odd jobs. When he arrived in Israel in the summer of 2012, however, he seemed instantly to find his purpose.
Mr. Steinberg, who was living in Beersheba, Israel, had attended Pierce College and El Camino Real High School in Southern California. Mr. Steinberg and his sister changed their flights to stay in Israel beyond the scheduled end of their trip. And once he returned to California, Mr. Steinberg immediately made plans to return. He had surgery on his back, so he would be able to pass an army physical, and insisted that he wanted to be part of a combat unit, even as army officers, seeing his small stature, expressed skepticism that he could do the job.
Mr. Steinberg visited Israel for the first time on a trip with his younger brother and sister in June 2012, said Jay Sanderson, the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, who met with the Steinberg family in Los Angeles on Sunday. “My first thought was that I didn’t want him to do it,” said Ben Gaudioz, a friend since second grade. “But at the same time, I could see that this was something he really wanted to devote himself to, so I was proud of him for finding that.”
“That trip was really life-changing for him,” Mr. Sanderson said. “When he came back, he made the tough decision that he wanted to go back to Israel and support the country.” Hayley Messersmith, a friend from high school, said that the army “ultimately saved his life.”
Mr. Steinberg returned to Israel a few months later. Though he spoke little Hebrew, he joined the Israel Defense Forces. When she last saw Mr. Steinberg, on a visit home several months ago, she said he planned to come back to California after he finished his service in November. He wanted to get serious about settling down and perhaps starting a family, Ms. Messersmith said.
“He was completely dedicated and committed to serving the country of Israel,” his father, Stuart Steinberg, told The A.P. “He was focused, he was clear in what the mission was, and he was dedicated to the work he needed to be doing.” Unfortunately, Mr. Steinberg never made it back. He spoke to his sister for the final time last week, and told her not to worry about him but to take care of their parents. He knew his mother was concerned about his safety.
She and her family left on Monday for Israel, where he will be buried.
“I just want him to rest peacefully,” Ms. Steinberg said. “I hope he knows how many people admire his bravery and love him so much.”