A negative political and public reaction in Israel to the ceasefire with Iran, despite the respite it brings. No pause for Israel’s army, however, or its victims. Hundreds have been killed in Lebanon, with more dead in Gaza. Is Israel a society effectively on a permanent war footing? Presenter: Tom McRae
Guests: Ilan Pappe – a historian and professor at Exeter University
Gideon Levy – a columnist at Haaretz newspaper in Tel Aviv
Haim Bresheeth – professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Nissi Peli writes:

Contemporary Israeli society is characterized by hypermilitarism. This form of militarism is not merely a political philosophy: it is a state of being that fundamentally structures the self, shaping our imagination, thoughts, desires, relationships, and sense of our collective as Israelis. Almost everything is perceived and understood in military terms, values, and imagery, while a permanent state of emergency and war become the natural order.

This ideology spans the Israeli spectrum from the spiritual and theological militarism of hilltop youth and religious settlers, to the secular, liberal militarism that is prominent among the Israeli bourgeoisie. At almost any point in life, Israelis see themselves and those around them through a military lens: as soldiers-to-be (as pre-service youth, and later as potential reservists), active-duty soldiers, or former soldiers.

Even those who do not enlist, or who are exempted from reserve service later in life, are perceived in relation to the army and are treated as outcasts by the majority of Israeli society. Conscientious objectors face not only jail time, but regular hostility and incitement, while politicians across the political spectrum occasionally threaten to strip civil rights from those who refuse to “share the burden.”

Much has already been said about the sociology of militarism in Israel: how high-ranking military officials regularly go on to become successful politicians, how journalists receive their training in military media units; how cafés and bars and trains are crowded with armored soldiers and civilians, and how the education system participates in militaristic indoctrination and the army’s recruitment efforts. What often goes under the radar, however, is the way that militarism permeates everyday life in Israel in its more banal forms — a phenomenology of the militarized everyday. [Continue reading…]