Israel's Materialist Militarism

Yagil Levy astutely brings together previously unconnected ideas about citizenship and rewards to military service. He thus produces a novel, persuasive account of how and why Israeli popular support for military actions against neighbors changes from one military engagement to the next. -- Charles Tilly, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Columbia University
In this valuable book, Yagil Levy probes how the Israeli state has historically been constituted by military service and its concomitant social and material rewards, how the citizenship equation has been transformed over the decades, how the military's social base has changed as a result, and how these various trajectories have come together to shape the contemporary Israeli polity, its democracy, and especially its foreign policy and military strategy. The "material militarist" theoretical framework that Levy employs for organizing and understanding these developments is sure to provoke much debate, as will his particular interpretations of Israeli politics. Students of Israel in particular and of civil-military relations in general will find much rewarding in this rich study. -- Ronald R. Krebs, McKnight Land-Grant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Minnesota