Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Itamar Turner-Trauring (itamarst@better.boston)'s status on Thursday, 25-Jul-2024 11:11:39 JST Itamar Turner-Trauring

   Been thinking about Israel; I left 20+ years ago, so my perspective on how it's changed isn't particularly informed. But I notice continuities, and one that isn't really talked about a lot is the deep influence of militarism.

   As https://newprofile.org/en/ puts it, Israel is "an army with a state."

   For a sense of scale, 40% of men are drafted to the military, 33% of women. Focus only on Jewish Israelis, and it's 58% and 49%. (As of 2019: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2019-09-06/ty-article/.premium/most-israelis-dont-serve-in-the-army-but-its-still-the-right-solution-for-now/0000017f-ef20-da6f-a77f-ff2eea550000).

   1/n

   • Embed this notice
     Itamar Turner-Trauring (itamarst@better.boston)'s status on Thursday, 25-Jul-2024 11:11:36 JST Itamar Turner-Trauring

     in reply to

     A current major issue in Israeli politics is getting rid of military exemption for Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men. Secular Israeli Jews feel there is so much need for military action (==war crimes) that it's unfair that the burden isn't shared by Ultra-Orthodox men.

     Insofar as Israeli Jews oppose the war now, it's because it's failed to return any hostages.

     War crimes, and the fact that military action keeps failing over and over, is never mentioned; militarism is too fundamental of a value.

     5/n

   • Embed this notice
     Itamar Turner-Trauring (itamarst@better.boston)'s status on Thursday, 25-Jul-2024 11:11:37 JST Itamar Turner-Trauring

     in reply to

     On the one hand, serving in the military is a key cultural value for most Israeli Jews.

     On the other, the military's strategy involves massive use of retaliatory force. A decade or two ago a general explained that for every rocket Hamas shot at Israel (not very effective rockets, killing a civilian or wounding a couple), Israel would level a whole building. So a military doctrine that results in massive civilian casualties. War crimes, but also bad strategy (https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/middle-east-robert-pape).

     3/n

   • Embed this notice
     Itamar Turner-Trauring (itamarst@better.boston)'s status on Thursday, 25-Jul-2024 11:11:37 JST Itamar Turner-Trauring

     in reply to

     Militarism as a key cultural value means Israeli Jews are compelled to participate in war crimes, and compelled to support really stupid strategy. It's very difficult for them to articulate non-military strategies. Former generals often go into politics, so politicians lack any larger perspective too (Rabin being an exception).

     For the right, this isn't a problem. For the left, it means they will say they support peace even as they personally destroy any chance of that happening.

     4/n

     Blaise Pabón - controlpl4n3 repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Itamar Turner-Trauring (itamarst@better.boston)'s status on Thursday, 25-Jul-2024 11:11:38 JST Itamar Turner-Trauring

     in reply to

     Middle-class American 12th graders might be figuring out if and where they're going to college. When I was going to high school in Israel, the question was where you would serve in the military.

     A key difference between Zionist Jewish political parties and non-Zionist Jewish parties is that the voters of the former serve in the military. Culturally the IDF is the key Zionist institution: whether one regards oneself as "left-wing" or "right-wing", military service is a fundamental premise.

     2/n