The imprint of the Intifada: Response of Kibbutz-born soldiers to military service in the West Bank and Gaza

Armed Forces and Society

Volumn 26, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 285-311

  Dar, Yechezkel ^a   Kimhi, Shaul ^b   Stadler, Nurit ^b   Epstein, Alek D ^b  

^a HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM   (Israel)

^b NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0034420250     PISSN: 0095327X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0095327X0002600206     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. For descriptions of the Palestinian resistance activity and the IDF response to the Intifada, see Ephraim Inbar, "Israel's Small War: The Military Reaction to the Intifada," Armed Forces & Society 18 (1991): 29-50; and William Vogele, "Learning and Nonviolent Struggle in the Intifada," Peace and Change 17 (1992): 312-40.
2. For descriptions of the Palestinian resistance activity and the IDF response to the Intifada, see Ephraim Inbar, "Israel's Small War: The Military Reaction to the Intifada," Armed Forces & Society 18 (1991): 29-50; and William Vogele, "Learning and Nonviolent Struggle in the Intifada," Peace and Change 17 (1992): 312-40.
3. Ze'ev Schiff and Ehud Yaari, Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising - Israel's Third Front (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990).
4. Ephraim Inbar, "Israel's Small War."
5. Hanna Levinsohn and Elihu Katz "The Intifada is Not a War: Jewish Public Opinion on the Israel-Arab Conflict," in Framing the Intifada: People and Media, ed. A. Cohen and G. Wolfsfeld (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993), 53-63.
6. A poll conducted in 1988 (in parallel to the service of our respondents) disclosed a split of opinions about the use of force in the Intifada. Ten percent supported withdrawal from the territories, 28% approved the use of a very limited force, 32% approved limited force, 15% approved extensive force, 10% supported transfer of the Palestinians from the West Bank, and 5% had no opinion. See Gad Barzilai and Efraim Inbar, "The Use of Force: Israeli Public Opinion on Military Options," Armed Forces & Society 23 (1996): 49-80.
7. See Reuven Gal, "Commitment and Obedience in the Military: An Israeli Case Study," Armed Forces & Society 11 (1985): 553-564; Tamar Liebes and Shoshana Blum-Kulka, "Managing a Moral Dilemma: Israeli Soldiers in the Intifada," Armed Forces & Society 27 (1994): 45-68.
8. See Reuven Gal, "Commitment and Obedience in the Military: An Israeli Case Study," Armed Forces & Society 11 (1985): 553-564; Tamar Liebes and Shoshana Blum-Kulka, "Managing a Moral Dilemma: Israeli Soldiers in the Intifada," Armed Forces & Society 27 (1994): 45-68.
9. Yoram Peri "The Influence of the Intifada on IDF" in The Seventh War: The Effects of the Intifada on the Israeli Society, ed. R. Gal (Tel-Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1990: 122-128 [in Hebrew]).
10. Veterans of previous wars, who served as reservists during the Intifada, showed a growing criticism concerning the government's ability to cope with the Israel-Arab conflict and of the capability of the IDF to deal with the Intifada. See Helena Syna-Desivilya and Reuven Gal, "Repeated War Experiences: The Case of Israeli Reservists." Research Report (Zichron Ya'akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1992). One-fourth of the soldiers who were released from the army in 1991 mentioned disappointment with the state as a principal effect of their military service. See Ofra Mayseless, "Cohort Analysis of Attitudes toward the IDF and the State: Comparison between Veterans and Adolescents on the Verge of Mobilization." Research Report (Zichron Ya'akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1992 [in Hebrew]).
11. Veterans of previous wars, who served as reservists during the Intifada, showed a growing criticism concerning the government's ability to cope with the Israel-Arab conflict and of the capability of the IDF to deal with the Intifada. See Helena Syna-Desivilya and Reuven Gal, "Repeated War Experiences: The Case of Israeli Reservists." Research Report (Zichron Ya'akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1992). One-fourth of the soldiers who were released from the army in 1991 mentioned disappointment with the state as a principal effect of their military service. See Ofra Mayseless, "Cohort Analysis of Attitudes toward the IDF and the State: Comparison between Veterans and Adolescents on the Verge of Mobilization." Research Report (Zichron Ya'akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1992 [in Hebrew]).
12. See, inter alia, Aryeh Shalev, The Intifada: Causes and Effects (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1991); Schiff and Yaari, Intifada: the Palestinian Uprising - Israel's Third Front.
13. See, inter alia, Aryeh Shalev, The Intifada: Causes and Effects (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1991); Schiff and Yaari, Intifada: the Palestinian Uprising - Israel's Third Front.
14. See Akiba Cohen and Gadi Wolfsfeld, eds., Framing the Intifada: People and Media, (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993), and Barzilai and Inbar, "The Use of Force: Israeli Public Opinion on Military Options."
15. See Akiba Cohen and Gadi Wolfsfeld, eds., Framing the Intifada: People and Media, (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993), and Barzilai and Inbar, "The Use of Force: Israeli Public Opinion on Military Options."
16. A fourth work treated reservist soldiers' refusal to serve in the territories in the Intifada. See Ruth Linn, "When the Individual Soldier Says 'No' to War: A Look at Selective Refusal during the Intifada", Journal of Peace Research 33, (1996): 421-431. There were 165 cases of refusal to serve during the Intifada.
17. According to Ehud Barak, former Chief of Staff, the IDF employed about 10,000 soldiers and officers daily in the West Bank and Gaza strip in 1989. See Reuven Gal, "Psychological and Ethical Aspects of Military Service in the Occupied Territories." Research report (Zichron Ya'akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1989, 3 [in Hebrew]).
18. Shoshana Blum-Kulka and Tamar Liebes, "Frame of Ambiguities: Intifada, Narrativization of the Experience by Israeli Soldiers," in Framing the Intifada: People and Media, ed. A. Cohen and G. Wolfsfeld (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993), 27-52.
19. Eyal Ben-Ari, "Masks and Soldiering: The Israeli Army and the Palestinian Uprising," Cultural Anthropology 4 (1989): 372-389.
20. Helena Syna-Desivilya and Reuven Gal, "Repeated War Experiences."
21. Yechezkel Dar, "Kibbutz Education: A Sociological Account" Journal of Moral Education 24 (1995): 225-244.
22. John Snarey, "Promoting Moral Maturity among Adolescents: An Ethnographic Study of the Israeli Kibbutz," Comparative Educational Review 31 (1987): 241-25.
23. Shlomit Levy and Louis Guttman, "Values and Attitudes of Israel High School Youth." Research report (Jerusalem: The Israel Institute of Applied Social Research, 1976 [in Hebrew]); Ofra Mayseless, Reuven Gal, and Eli Fishoff, "Political and Military Attitudes of High School Students." Research report (Zichron Ya'akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1989 [in Hebrew]); Kalman Benyamini, "Political and Civil Attitudes of Jewish Youth in Israel." Research report (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, Psychology Department, 1990 [in Hebrew]); Kalman Benyamini, "Political and Civil Attitudes of Jewish Youth in Israel." Research report (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, The NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education, 1994 [in Hebrew]).
24. Shlomit Levy and Louis Guttman, "Values and Attitudes of Israel High School Youth." Research report (Jerusalem: The Israel Institute of Applied Social Research, 1976 [in Hebrew]); Ofra Mayseless, Reuven Gal, and Eli Fishoff, "Political and Military Attitudes of High School Students." Research report (Zichron Ya'akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1989 [in Hebrew]); Kalman Benyamini, "Political and Civil Attitudes of Jewish Youth in Israel." Research report (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, Psychology Department, 1990 [in Hebrew]); Kalman Benyamini, "Political and Civil Attitudes of Jewish Youth in Israel." Research report (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, The NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education, 1994 [in Hebrew]).
25. Shlomit Levy and Louis Guttman, "Values and Attitudes of Israel High School Youth." Research report (Jerusalem: The Israel Institute of Applied Social Research, 1976 [in Hebrew]); Ofra Mayseless, Reuven Gal, and Eli Fishoff, "Political and Military Attitudes of High School Students." Research report (Zichron Ya'akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1989 [in Hebrew]); Kalman Benyamini, "Political and Civil Attitudes of Jewish Youth in Israel." Research report (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, Psychology Department, 1990 [in Hebrew]); Kalman Benyamini, "Political and Civil Attitudes of Jewish Youth in Israel." Research report (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, The NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education, 1994 [in Hebrew]).
26. Shlomit Levy and Louis Guttman, "Values and Attitudes of Israel High School Youth." Research report (Jerusalem: The Israel Institute of Applied Social Research, 1976 [in Hebrew]); Ofra Mayseless, Reuven Gal, and Eli Fishoff, "Political and Military Attitudes of High School Students." Research report (Zichron Ya'akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1989 [in Hebrew]); Kalman Benyamini, "Political and Civil Attitudes of Jewish Youth in Israel." Research report (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, Psychology Department, 1990 [in Hebrew]); Kalman Benyamini, "Political and Civil Attitudes of Jewish Youth in Israel." Research report (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, The NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education, 1994 [in Hebrew]).
27. Yehuda Amir, "The Effectiveness of the Kibbutz-Born Soldier in the Israel Defense Forces." Human Relations 22 (1969): 333-344; Yoel Yinon and Nili Freedman, "Why Do Kibbutz-Born Soldiers Perform Better than City-Born in the Army?" Megamot: Behavioral Sciences Quarterly 23 (1977): 110-118 [in Hebrew].
28. Yehuda Amir, "The Effectiveness of the Kibbutz-Born Soldier in the Israel Defense Forces." Human Relations 22 (1969): 333-344; Yoel Yinon and Nili Freedman, "Why Do Kibbutz-Born Soldiers Perform Better than City-Born in the Army?" Megamot: Behavioral Sciences Quarterly 23 (1977): 110-118 [in Hebrew].
29. Dan Zamir, "Kibbutz Youth's Changing Attitude to Military Service." Research report (Haifa: Oranim Institute for Kibbutz Education Research, 1986 [in Hebrew]).
30. Mayseless, Gal, and Fishoff, "Political and Military Attitudes of High School Students."
31. Left and right in Israel are predominantly defined by their respective dovish or hawkish attitudes to the Israel-Arab conflict, rather than by their economic programs. For the dovish-hawkish continuum in Israel, see Efraim Inbar, War and Peace in Israeli Politics: Labor Party Positions on National Security (Boulder, CO: Lynn Rienner, 1991), 11-15.
32. For empirical evidence of greater sensitivity to the moral dilemmas connected to Intifada and the mental attrition caused by it, especially among people of "leftist" orientation, see Ayala Pines, "The Palestinian Intifada and Israelis' Burnout" Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 25 (1994): 438-451.
33. The difference in timing of discharge from the army is due to different terms of service for men and women, officers and other ranks, and those volunteering for a year of social service before enlisting in the army.
34. A longer service time in the territories for women than for men is due to more women in office running positions within headquarters of constant location while men served in combat units that changed location frequently.
35. Political identification was double-checked by a question about political party preference before and after army service. A slight tendency to slide to the left, expressed by a decline of sympathy for the Labor party and preference of the more "dawish" parties that constituted the Meretz block, especially the radical left Ratz, was shown. Nevertheless, there was almost no support for the right-wing parties, which complies with the analysis of the open question.
36. Reuven Gal, "The Impact of the Intifada on Israeli Youth." Research report (Zichron Ya'akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1990).
37. Gal, "Psychological and Ethical Aspects of Military Service," 11.
38. "When was it heard that the Defense Minister and the Security Cabinet would determine what kind of ammunition is to be used on the battlefield, what procedure of opening fire on the enemies is to look like, any kind of precise formulation of 'who when and where is allowed to do what'?" (Gal, "Psychological and Ethical Aspects of Military Service," 5).
39. A reservist officer said to the Prime Minister who was visiting his unit: "You think you know what is going on. It is not likely that you would, when even our regiment commander does not. When a patrol goes out to the field it does whatever it does without even the platoon lieutenant knowing what they do. So, you sure do not know. You have not got the slightest idea of how many kills have been done and what is the situation here. That feeling of yours, that you control the things, is totally wrong" ("Record of talks with officers," Hadashot January 20, 1989).
40. Liebes and Blum-Kulka, "Managing a Moral Dilemma."
41. Binyamini, "Political and Civil Attitudes," found that 61% of the senior high students agreed with the following phrase: "In the army one has to obey the orders whatever they may be."
42. Ayala Pines claimed, concerning the Intifada, that "burnout" characterized idealistic people who cannot derive existential significance from the results of their efforts; see Pines, "The Palestinian Intifada and Israelis' Burnout."
43. In Jewish State schools (not including the state religious schools), in response to the question, "Do you hate the Arabs?" 30% of the whole sample answered "Yes, all of them" and "Yes, most of them," as against 11% among the kibbutzniks. See Ofra Mayseless and Reuven Gal, "Hatred towards Arabs among Israeli High-School Students: A Case of Prejudice." Research report (Zichron Ya'akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1991).
44. See Sami Smooha, "Jewish and Arab Ethnocentrism in Israel," Ethnic and Racial Studies 10 (1987): 1-26; Daniel Bar-Tal, "Development of Categories and Stereotypes in Early Childhood: The Case of 'Arab' Concept Formation, Stereotype and Attitudes by Jewish Children in Israel," Journal of Intercultural Relations 20 (1996): 341-70.
45. See Sami Smooha, "Jewish and Arab Ethnocentrism in Israel," Ethnic and Racial Studies 10 (1987): 1-26; Daniel Bar-Tal, "Development of Categories and Stereotypes in Early Childhood: The Case of 'Arab' Concept Formation, Stereotype and Attitudes by Jewish Children in Israel," Journal of Intercultural Relations 20 (1996): 341-70.
46. Gal, "Psychological and Ethical Aspects of Military Service."
47. Mayseless, Gal, and Fishoff, "Political and Military Attitudes of High School Students."
48. Liebes and Blum-Kulka, "Managing a Moral Dilemma."
49. Reuven Gal, A Portrait of the Israeli Soldier (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986); Ofra Mayseless, "Israeli and American Youth: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Identity Formation." Research Report (Zichron Ya'akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1990).
50. Reuven Gal, A Portrait of the Israeli Soldier (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986); Ofra Mayseless, "Israeli and American Youth: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Identity Formation." Research Report (Zichron Ya'akov: The Israeli Institute for Military Studies, 1990).
51. Amiya Lieblich, Transition to Adulthood During Military Service: The Israeli Case (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1989).
52. See Dar, "Kibbutz Education."
53. Ruth Sharabany and Hadas Weiseman, "Close Relationships in Adolescence: The Case of the Kibbutz," Journal of Youth and Adolescence 22 (1993): 671-95.
54. Pines, "The Palestinian Intifada and Israelis' Burnout."
55. Edna Lomsky-Feder, "The Meaning of War Through Veterans' Eyes: Phenomenological Analysis of Life Stories," International Sociology 10 (1995): 463-82.