Cpt. Arnon Benveniste, 26: Horse lover is 3rd generation of fallen soldiers

Cpt. (res.) Arnon Moshe Avraham Benveniste Vaspi, 26, an officer in the Givati Brigade’s Reconnaissance Battalion, from Yesud HaMa’ala, was killed while fighting Hamas in northern Gaza on November 20, 2023.

He was buried on November 21 in Rosh Pina. He is survived by his mother, Vered, his brother, Yosef, his twin sister, Chaya Mushka, and his girlfriend, Inbal. His father, Dovid, died in 2016, when Arnon was 17.

He was named for his maternal uncle, Cpl. Arnon Vaspi, who was killed at age 19 while fighting in the First Lebanon War in 1983. His maternal grandfather, Lt. Col. Yoav Vaspi, was killed in the Yom Kippur War in 1973 at age 33.

His grandmother, Sarah Vaspi, died in February 2025 after losing her husband, son and grandson fighting in three of Israel’s wars, as well as a nephew and stepson during their military service.

Born in San Francisco into a Chabad household, Arnon later lived in Los Angeles and then moved to Israel with his family in 2006, at age 9.

The family settled in Safed, where Arnon attended Chabad schools, and later moved to the nearby Yesud HaMa’ala.

Not quite finding his place within the framework, he spent much of his time working at a nearby horse ranch. Writing in an article on the IDF website in 2019, Arnon said he never imagined that he would serve in the army due to his family’s background. But after the death of his father, and at the urging of his boss, Arnon changed his mind and ultimately fought his way to becoming an officer in the elite reconnaissance unit of Givati.

“When I asked my mother to sign the form agreeing for me to serve in combat (because I come from a bereaved family), I saw her fears rising up again,” he wrote. “It wasn’t easy for her to sign, but now she sees me every weekend returning home with a gleam in my eye.”

Arnon wrote that, as he was set to complete his officer’s course, “I have no doubt that my father, grandfather, Uncle Arnon, Uri and Omri will be there too, and will be happy that I chose, despite everything, to continue in their path.”

Arnon lived with his girlfriend, Inbal, in the Lower Galilee and ran his own company that cleaned solar panels. He continued to pursue his love of horses, and also loved to ride his motorbike around in nature and play the guitar.

He was called up to reserve duty on October 7, 2023, and didn’t hesitate to join the battles in southern Israel, and later in Gaza.

His brother, Yosef, told the Ynet news site that “Arnon was a big brother in every sense of the word. He’s the reason I chose to enlist in combat service. Our connection was everything to me.”

Yosef said that when he was having a hard time, “he would call me every day, support me and manage to impart to me a calming message in the perfect way.”

Arnon’s first cousin, Sheina Vaspi – who was Israel’s first-ever Winter Paralympian in 2022 – wrote a year after he was killed that “your smile, your voice, your laughter – all live inside my head.”

“You’re so present, that even after a year I still struggle to believe [you’re not here],” she added. “I’ll need to visit your grave another 1,000 times in order to believe that you’re in another world. Until then you live so strongly in my memory.”

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