Search results

A utopian outlook in the earlier kibbutz has sustained symbolic criteria in the evaluation of work. However, a process of rationalization has enhanced the instrumental importance of work and stimulated individualistic self-fulfilment. Facilitated by changing conceptions of distributive justice, social evaluation of work has become both more materialistic and more differentiated. The increasing praise of talents and of the market value of work output at the expense of manual dexterity and moral virtues jeopardized kibbutz egalitarianism long before the recent period of economic and social crisis. Yet, economic setback has boosted decommunalization and further blurred the distinction between equitarian symbolic and equitarian materialistic rewarding.

Conscript military service is a pivotal experience for young Israelis of both genders. Juxtaposing conflicting claims concerning women's military experience—the women's marginalization claim and the youth moratorial self-enhancing claim—we compare men's and women's retrospective evaluations of six aspects of their service in the Israeli army: hardship, adaptation, motivation, investment, service significance, and personal benefits. Military service was found to be as meaningful and benefiting for women no less than for men. However, the dynamics of the moratorium experience differ by gender, in keeping with the differentiated substance and gendered social construction of their military roles.

Israel Army veterans of kibbutz background who had served in the occupied territories during the Intifada were retrospectively asked how this service affected them. Some common themes were disclosed. Service in the territories deepened understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but increased fear and hate of Arabs. These feelings did not lead to a national extremism, but rather to a rationalistic position demanding a peaceful, political solution. The majority of respondents became firmer in their original "leftist" position, and the justification for their position was utilitarian, considering the needs of the Israeli side; only a few based their position on support for the Palestinians' rights or suffering. To cope with the conflict between their military duty and their moral values, soldiers either sought shelter in military orders or compartmentalized their humanistic values and military duty. Few criticized the army. The major criticism, that soldiers had not been given enough tools to deal with the challenges of the Intifada, was directed at the state. Many regarded military service during the Intifada as a most difficult experience, but with only a temporal imprint.