Israel's Materialist Militarism explains the fluctuations in Israel's military policies during the 1990s-2000s from the Oslo Accords to the al-Aqsa Intifada and the Second Lebanon War. A conceptual framework is offered that relies on materialist militarism, the relations of exchange between the state and social groups, by which the groups exchange their military sacrifice for social rewards, that in turn nutures militarism. The dynamic balancing of the sacrifice/reward equation explains the dynamics of war versus de-escalation.

Israel's Materialist Militarism explains the fluctuations in Israel's military policies during the 1990s-2000s from the Oslo Accords to the al-Aqsa Intifada and the Second Lebanon War. A conceptual framework is offered that relies on materialist militarism, the relations of exchange between the state and social groups, by which the groups exchange their military sacrifice for social rewards, that in turn nutures militarism. The dynamic balancing of the sacrifice/reward equation explains the dynamics of war versus de-escalation.

2012 Winner of the Shapiro Award for the Best Book in Israel Studies, presented by the Association for Israel Studies Whose life is worth more? That is the question that states inevitably face during wartime. Which troops are thrown to the first lines of battle and which ones remain relatively intact? How can various categories of civilian populations be protected? And when front and rear are porous, whose life should receive priority, those of soldiers or those of civilians? In Israel's Death Hierarchy, Yagil Levy uses Israel as a compelling case study to...