Stuart A. Cohen - Divine Service?: Judaism and Israels Armed Forces

DIVINE SERVICE?

Religion and International Security

Series Editor: Lee Marsden, University of East Anglia

In the twenty-first century religion has become an increasingly important factor in international relations and international security. Religion is seen by policy makers and academics as being a major contributor in conflict and its successful resolution. The role of the Ashgate series in Religion and International Security is to provide such policy makers, practitioners, researchers and students with a first port of call in seeking to find the latest and most comprehensive research on religion and security. The series provides established and emerging authors with an opportunity to publish in a series with a reputation for high quality and cutting edge research in this field. The series produces analytical and scholarly works from around the world that demonstrate the relevance of religion in security and international relations. The intention is not to be prescriptive or reductionist in restricting the types of books that would be appropriate for the series and as such encourages a variety of theoretical and empirical approaches. International security is broadly defined to incorporate inter and intra-state conflict, human security, terrorism, genocide, religious freedom, human rights, environmental security, the arms trade, securitisation, gender security, peace keeping, conflict resolution and humanitarian intervention. The distinguishing feature is the religious element in any security or conflict issue.

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Judaism and Israels Armed Forces

STUART A. COHEN

First published by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge
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Copyright Stuart A. Cohen.

Stuart A. Cohen has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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Cohen, Stuart, 1946-

Divine service? : Judaism and Israels Armed Forces.
(Religion and international security)

1. National securityReligious aspectsJudaism.
2. National securityIsrael. 3. DraftIsrael. 4. War
Religious aspectsJudaism. 5. War (Jewish law)

I. Title II. Series

296.3827-dc23

Cohen, Stuart, 1946-

Divine service? : Judaism and Israels armed forces / by Stuart A Cohen.

pages cm. (Religion and international security)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4094-6637-6 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-4094-6639-0

(ebook) ISBN 978-1-4094-6638-3 (epub) 1. Judaism and state. 2.
Civil-military relationsIsrael. 3. Military law (Jewish law) 4. War
(Jewish law) 5. WarReligious aspectsJudaism. 6. IsraelArmed Forces.

I. Title.

BM538.S7C64 2013

296.3827-dc23

2012048050

ISBN 978-1-409-46637-6 (hbk)

The initiative for this book came from Professor Lee Marsden, the editor of Ashgates series on Religion and International Security. It is a pleasure as well as a duty to thank him for his interest, and to express my gratitude to the entire staff at Ashgate for helping to bring the work to fruition.

Earlier versions of several chapters in this book originally appeared elsewhere, and thanks are due to those venues for their consideration. I also gratefully acknowledge the hospitality extended by both the University of Michigans Frankel Center, where I presented an oral version of .

Without in any way absolving myself of responsibility for the content of the following pages, this book attempts to incorporate the comments and criticisms received over the years to my analyses of the intersection between Judaism and Israels armed forces. It also seeks to give due acknowledgement to the insights that I have derived from the work of other scholars who have also analyzed this fascinating phenomenon. I trust that I have done justice to them all.

I completed revising this manuscript in the summer of 2012, whilst also transferring to a new academic home. Far from interfering with my writing, the move to the recently founded Academic College at Ashkelon, Israel, acted as a stimulus, and I am indebted to my colleagues there for creating the ambience that makes it so.

My greatest debt, however, is to my wife and our family, who not for the first time have proven to be stimulating sources of information as well as encouragement. Hence, this book is dedicated to them.

To Tova and our family

Numbers 6:246.

From a sociological perspective, the defining characteristic of the Israel Defense Force (IDF) is that it consists almost entirely of Jewish men and women. Nominally, all Israeli citizens are liable for conscript terms of two to three years at age 18 and, after their discharge, are also required to report for spells of reserve duty until middle age. In fact, however, military service by non-Jewish segments (Bedouin, Druze and Christians of varying denominations, who together comprise about 5 percent of Israels total citizenry) is statistically immaterial. Muslim Arabs, who make up a quarter of the population and thus constitute the one gentile group with the potential to exert a significant impact on the IDFs religious demography, receive blanket draft exemptions and, a handful of volunteers apart, are consequently entirely absent from the ranks. Hence, to all intents and purposes, the IDF is an army of Jews.

The IDF is also a Jewish army, in the sense that traditional Jewish themes and motifs form integral parts of its very texture. All military kitchens in Israel conform to traditional Jewish dietary requirements; the sabbath and Jewish holy days shape military schedules with respect to training and vacations; all burials in Jewish sections of official military cemeteries are conducted in accordance with traditional religious practice. Almost every other major rite of passage in the Israeli military experience is also deliberately suffused with ceremonies and pageants designed to arouse profound Jewish connotations. For instance, at induction, new recruits receive a copy of the Old Testament, which religious conscripts necessarily consider to contain the word of God and which non-believers have been taught at school to regard as the formative text of Jewish civilization. Similarly evocative are the venues selected for the staging of passing out parades. On completion of basic training, for instance, each new cohort of paratroops is formally enrolled during the course of a torchlight ceremony held at the western wall in Jerusalem. Since 2010, the same venue has also been used by the Golani infantry brigade. The location is well chosen. Quite apart from being located at the heart of the Old City where IDF troops covered themselves in glory during the Six Days War of 1967, the wall is also the sole remaining relic of the second temple destroyed by Roman legionnaires in the year 70ce, and hence a site of religious pilgrimage.