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| 1 |
ID:
173832
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper explores the vernacular roles that religious practices and experiences play within contemporary combat units of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). We argue for an anthropological perspective that highlights the modes through which rituals serve efficacious – as opposed to semiotic – ends. In this way, we seek to push back against what we term the ‘faith in a foxhole’ paradigm, where religion is primarily seen as a meaning-making system whose nearly sole function is to aid soldiers in coping with the chaos and uncertainty of combat. We demonstrate how amidst the low-level and long-term style of contemporary asymmetrical warfare, ritual practices can often function less as the matrix for broader meaning making systems but are rather mobilized in ways that are meant to support certain practical and pragmatic goals. The article concludes that while scholars have mostly focused attention on the institutional forces and political consequences of ‘religionization’ within Israeli society, they have missed the many vernacular ways in which Israelis mobilize and instrumentalize their use of ritual and religious practices in both military and civilian contexts.
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| 2 |
ID:
178249
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article explores the social media postings of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers on two different and unofficial Facebook groups. While scholars of armed forces and society have noted the growing importance that militaries have placed on digital media, there is little data regarding the unofficial uses and meanings that regular soldiers themselves make of social networking sites. With an anthropological focus on everyday experiences, we argue that the social media activity of IDF personnel highlights the quotidian aspects of military life in ways that reverberate beyond the strictly ideological or political facets of their service. Here, soldiers can express their frustrations with military bureaucracy, while also presenting a lighthearted (and positive) commentary on a shared rite of passage. This research opens a window into the lives and dilemmas of the first generation of Israeli soldiers to employ new media as a taken for granted aspect of their service.
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| 3 |
ID:
180042
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article analyses the experiences of IDF soldiers involved in subterranean operations in Gaza. While tunnel warfare is a central element in warfare, few sociological studies have focused on this element of combat. In-depth interviews reveal the day-to-day experiences of the specialised combat engineering units tasked with subterranean operations during the past two decades. The themes identified are: ‘Operational activity in tunnels as an experience’, ‘Courage and danger’, ‘Selection and classification of manpower’ and ‘Accumulating experience’. An awareness for generational differences in the narratives allows an analytical model based on four different models for organising forces for operations in tunnels.
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| 4 |
ID:
181225
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| Summary/Abstract |
How does the Israel Defence Forces cultivate the image of a ‘hero’ within its combat ranks? By analysing a series of online educational videos on combat heritage, this article will demonstrate how the IDF’s current heroic imagination is grounded in a subversion of the ‘Strategic Corporal’ paradigm. Within this paradigm, junior ranking soldiers are seen as increasing the chaos inherent in asymmetrical conflicts. By contrast, this article will argue that a focus on the learned elements of professionalism and training are seen as creating the conditions wherein every man (or woman) can become a ‘hero’.
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| 5 |
ID:
185253
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| Summary/Abstract |
This study presents an empirically grounded account of tunnel combat operations in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) within the context of “post-heroic” warfare. Current scholarship on “post-heroism” has viewed the technological and professional standards of contemporary military conflicts as distancing the individual combatant from the modern battlefield. Little attention has been given however to the ways in which soldiers themselves experience and adapt to post-heroic conditions. Findings based on in-depth semistructured interviews with 17 IDF tunnel combatants show these soldiers actively reinterpreting the strategic importance placed on distancing the warrior from the battlefield. This exploratory article suggests that an individual “warrior ethos” still resonates amid the professional and technological contours of post-heroic (underground) conflicts. By presenting a novel account of contemporary tunnel warfare from the perspective of the combatants themselves, this research sheds new light on the different personal dimensions that impact post-heroic military operations.
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