Books Published by Faculty

This book explores Israeli military culture focusing on the intersection between combat, masculinity and male-to-male desire. The first part of the book presents in-depth interviews with gay and bisexual combat veterans. In the midst of their combat training and war experiences these men reflect on their sexual adventuring and the negotiation of their evolving identity. In the second part of the book the author analyzes the cultural and sexual underpinnings of the Israeli military, unveiling the thin line between brothers in arms and brothers in bed. How does sexuality reinforce the combat thrill and the “sexual targeting” of the enemy? How do individual soldiers manage their unique identity and at the same time identify with hegemonic heterosexist values and national ideals? The author discusses the implications of the current findings for gay recruitment policies, comparing the Israeli case with the American one.

The Divided People describes a fracturing Israel, a deeply divided state whose political system is buckling and whose society is rapidly polarizing into religious and secular camps. Written by a social scientist and drawing upon social science research, the work documents the emergence of separate social networks, residential areas, symbols, and identities--and even a split in the Hebrew language itself. Yet rather than argue for a return to the commonality of the past, Eva Etzioni-Halevy champions Israel's painful transition toward a truly multicultural society prepared to embrace diversity and democracy. This provocative new book carries a supremely important message for a postmodern Israel taking its first painful steps toward pluralism, liberalism, and tolerance, and a wider lesson for western nations grappling with the problems of a devolutionary age.