Reluctant Compliance or Civil War: Prospects of Retrenchment in Israel

Abstract

Most research on civil wars focuses upon the variables that contribute to the outbreak of internecine strife. By contrast, this article examines a case study where, despite the clear potential for such violence, the institutions of the state have been strong enough to forestall internal conflict: Israel. The potential for civil strife is most closely associated with the Jewish settler movement which, regarding territorial concessions to the Palestinians as an apostasy, has come to directly challenge the authority of the State. While acknowledging that key variables that would normally presage internal violence are certainly present in the Israeli polity, the article identifies three key variables that deny agency to violent extremism: the sense of solidarity to which the Jewish people are committed, the perception of existential threats facing Israel and disunity within the camp of the potential rebels.

Notes

 1. Lilly Weissbrod, ‘Coping with the Failure of a Prophecy – The Israeli Disengagement from the Gaza Strip’, Religion and Society 10 (2008), online at < http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2008/2008.2html>.

 2. Gideon Aran, ‘Jewish Zionist Fundamentalism: The Bloc of the Faithful in Israel (Gush Emunim)’ in Martin E. Marty and Scott Appleby (eds) Fundamentalism Observed (Chicago: Chicago UP 1991) pp.265–344; Lilly Weissbrod, ‘Gush Emunim Ideology – From Religious Doctrine to Political Action’, Middle Eastern Studies 18/3 (1982) pp.265–75.

 3. All numbers are estimates since the Israeli Bureau of Statistics does not provide any on the Israeli population beyond the Green Line (the 1967 borders). Unofficial sources were used instead, notably Ran Parchi, ‘The Blocs of Settlements – The Full Story’, Omedia 27 Feb. 2006, online at < http://www.omedia.co.il/Show-Article.asp?DynamicContentID = 127&MenuID = 700>; ‘The Settlement’, Amana Website, no date, online at < http://www.amana.co.il/Index.asp?CategoryID = 22>.

 4. Roy Sharon, ‘Only 11% of the Settlers Will Leave’, Ma'ariv 7 Dec. 2007.

 5. ‘Peace Index Project’, Ha-aretz 17 May 2006; 8 June 2006.

 6. E.g., Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffer, ‘On Economic Causes of Civil War’, Oxford Economic Papers 50/4 (1998) pp.563–73.

 7. Nicholas Sambanis, ‘Do Ethnic and Nonethnic Civil Wars Have the Same Causes?’, Journal of Conflict Resolution 45/3 (2001) pp.259–82.

 8. Sambanis (note 7).

 9. Mirjam E. Sorli, Nils Petter Gleditsch and Havard Strand, ‘Why is There So Much Conflict in the Middle East?’, Journal of Conflict Resolution 49/1 (2005) pp.141–65.

10. Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, ‘Transnational Dimensions of Civil War’, Journal of Peace Research 44/3 (2007) pp.293–309.

11. ‘Release to the Press’, Bank of Israel, 28 Aug. 2007, online at < http://www.bankisrael.gov.il/deptdata/papers/paper12h.pdf>.

12. ‘Release to the Press’, Central Bureau of Statistics, 3 Mar. 2007, online at < http://www.cbs.gov.il/reader/newhodaot/hodaa_template.html?hodaa-200808046>.

13. Mattei Dogan, ‘Introduction: Political Distrust as a Worldwide Phenomenon’ in Mattei Dogan (ed.) Political Mistrust and the Discrediting of Politicians (Leiden: Brill 2005) pp.1–8.

14. Nicholas Sambanis, ‘A Review of Recent Advances and Future Directions in the Quantitative Literature on Civil War’, Defence and Peace Economics 13/3 (2002) pp.215–43.

15. Bruce Cauthen, ‘Covenant and Continuity: Ethno-symbolism and the Myth of Divine Election’, Nations and Nationalism 10/1–2 (2004) pp.19–33.

16. Matthieu Ollagnon, ‘Compromis, regulation et bien commun’, Social Compass 53/4 (2006) pp.491–503.

17. Lilly Weissbrod, Israeli Identity: In Search of a Successor to the Pioneer, Tsabar and Settler (London: Frank Cass 2002), specifically pp.215–29, 239–40.

18. ‘Peace Index Project’, Ha-aretz 12 Sept. 2006.

19. Efrat Semer, ‘75 Per Cent Believe: the Leadership Is Corrupt’, Ma'ariv 10 June 2007.

20. Amir Buchbut, ‘General Stern: Laws Are Needed Against Shirking Military Service’, Ma'ariv 23 Jul. 2007.

21. ‘Peace Index Project’, Ha-arets 6 Aug. 2007.

22. Weissbrod (note 17) p.119.

23. Nadav Ayal and Felix Frish, ‘Kibbutz Officers Needed to Carry Out Retrenchment’, Ma'ariv 18 Jun. 2006.

24. Felix Frish, ‘We Teach to Win’, Ma'ariv 12 Oct. 2007.

25. Eti Borstein, ‘The Hilltop Youths Between Continuity and Rebellion’, Maamarim 30 Aug. 2006, online at < http://www.articles.co.il/articles4793>.

26. Yehuda Yifra, ‘The Violent Manifesto of the Hilltop Youths’, Nekuda 275 (2004) pp.54–57.

27. Shmuel Meidad, ‘Committed to the Laws of God’, Besheva 28 Sept. 2006; Yedidya Meir and Sivan Meir-Rahav, Orange Days: Disengagement, the Reckoning and the Soul (Tel-Aviv: Yediot Ahronot 2006).

28. Weissbrod (note 1).

29. ‘Call to the Public’, Gamla 22 Mar. 2007, online at < http://www.gamla.org.il/homesh.htm>.

30. Efrat Weiss, ‘We Shall Return to Northern Samaria, the Public is with Us’, Ynet 19 Mar. 2007, online at < http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3378223,00,html>.

31. Efrat Weiss, ‘The Town of Homesh, a Spa and Neighbourhood with a View of the Sea’, Ynet 2 Jul. 2007, online at < http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3419832,00,html>.

32. ‘The Homesh Nucleus Starts a Campaign to Sell Plots in Homesh’, Yesha 19 Nov. 2007, online at < http://www.yesha.org.il/article-8968623.html>.

33. Elyakim Haetsni, ‘A Fig Leaf to Cover Up the Expulsion’, Gamla, 21 Nov. 2006, online at < http://www.gamla.org.il/article/2006/nov/e2.htm#top>.

34. Nadav Shragai, ‘The Organisers: To Correct the Mistake of the Disengagement in the Spirit of Sebastia’, Ha-arets 27 Mar. 2007.

35. ‘Ascent to the Temple Mount’, De'ot 24 Nov. 2007, online at < http://www.yesha.org.il/article-7014887.html>.

36. Roi Sharon, ‘Today: 4 New Outposts in the Territories’, Ma'ariv 9 Dec. 2007.

37. Shragai (note 34).

38. Hagit Rotenberg, ‘Homesh First’, Besheva 15 Mar. 2007.

39. Arye Dayan, ‘They have No God’, Ha-aretz 2 Apr. 2007.

40. ‘Towards the Fifth of Iyar’, Yesha News 11 Aug. 2005, online at < http://yeshanews.com/archive/20070426123>.

41. Zafrir Ronen, ‘What Did the New Yesha Council Refuse to Sign?’, Kehila Emunit 15 May 2007, online at < http://www.kehilaemunit.org/index.php?option = com_content&task = blogcategory&id = 1618&Itemid-58>.

42. PSI Homepage, no date, online at < http://www.professors.org.il/Hebrew/index.html>.

43. Women in Green Homepage, no date, online at < http://www.womeningreen.org/who.htm>.

44. Nadya Matar, ‘Wishing to Save Erets Yisrael’, Katifnet 24 Apr. 2007, online at < http://new.katifnet/opinion.php?page = 464>.

45. Amos Harel and Nadav Shragai, ‘About 200 wounded in Amona’, Ha-arets 1 Feb. 2006.

46. Rabbi Yaacov Sisberg, ‘Israel's Independence in Its Land – A Commandment or an Advice?’, Da'at 3 May 2007, online at < http://www.daat/daat/kitveyet/taleley/atsmaut-2.htm>.

47. ‘Va'ad Rabbanei Yesha: To Arrive at Homesh Tomorrow by Any Means’, Aruts 7 13 May 2007, online at < http://www.inn.co.il/News/Flash.aspx/182734>.

48. Roi Sharon, ‘The Temple Mount is Ours’, Ma'ariv 14 May 2007.

49. Yair Sheleg, ‘The Call of Religious Zionist Rabbis to Ascend the Temple Mount Has Rekindled a Halachic Dispute of 40 Years, Ha-arets 18 May 2007.

50. ‘Succot at the Outposts’, Aruts 7 29 Sept. 2007, online at < http://www.inn.co.il/Blogs/Blog.aspx/6#215>.

51. Yesha Council Homepage, no date, online at < http://www.myesha.org.il>.

52. ‘Change of Leadership at the Yesha Council’, Nfc 8 May 2007, online at < http://www.nfc.co.il/PageLoad.aspx?adid = 1909&pageUri = Archive/001-D.130482-00.html?tag = 17-27-04>.

53. Roi Sharon, ‘Homesh and the Yesha Council – Who Knows and Whom?’, Aruts 7 24 May 2007, online at < http://www.inn.co.il/Forum/Forum.aspx/t20492>.

54. Roi Sharon, ‘The Yesha Council Presents: March of the Sobered-Up’, Ma'ariv 28 May 2007.

55. Yair Sheleg, ‘The Second Secular Person’, Ha-aretz 20 Jul. 2007.

56. Meir Rapoport, ‘The Humour of Settlers’, Ha-aretz 12 Oct. 2007.

57. Hagit Rotenberg, ‘On the Confrontation Line’, Besheva 22 Nov. 2007.

58. Shlomo Halevi Wolfa, Between Light and Darkness (Bnei Brak: Abramovich 2007).

59. Shlomo Halevi Wolfa, ‘Reply to a Question’, Besheva 7 Sept. 2006.

60. N. Yerushalmi, ‘For You Have Begun to Fall’, Shofar 3 Jan. 2007, online at < http://www.shofar.net/site/ARDetile.asp?id = 9263>.

61. ‘Olmert is Punished for the Disengagement’, Chabad Info 8 May 2007, online at < http://news.chabad.info/144/8597.html>.

62. Hagit Ritman and Hagit Rutenberg, ‘Identification-Evacuation Parade’, Besheva 3 May 2007.

63. Atilla Shumpalvi, ‘Netanyahu: the Feiglin Group – An Ineffective Minority’, Yediot Ahronot 15 Aug. 2007.

64. Elizur Segal, ‘If You Vote, it is No Fairytale’, Manhigut Yehudit 15 Jul. 2007, online at < http://he.manhigut.org/content/view/3258/140>.

65. According to an extensive survey, about 50 per cent of the secular Israelis interviewed observe some major religious commandments, notably circumcision, fasting on the Day of Atonement and attaching a mezuzah to their doorpost. See Shlomit Levy, Hanna Levison and Elihu Katz, Beliefs, Keeping Commandments and Social Relations Among Jews in Israel (Jerusalem: Guttman Institute of Applied Social Research 1993) pp.101, 201.

66. ‘About the Movement’, Manhigut Yehudit 16 Jul. 2007, online at < http://he.manhigut.org>.

67. Miya Bengal, ‘They are Afraid’, Ma'ariv 3 Aug. 2007.

68. Haim Navon, ‘Authentic Judaism is Complex Judaism’, Ma'ariv 14 Feb. 2006.

69. Amir Rapoport, ‘An Army in Crisis’, Ma'ariv 12 Oct. 2007.

70. For example, see Rachel Rosenzweig, Solidaritaet mit den Leidenden im Judentum (Berlin: Gruyter 1978) p.VII; Arthur Marmorstein, The Doctrine of Merits in Old Rabbinical Literature (New York: Ktav 1968) pp.72, 96, 187.

71. Martin Buber, Israel und Palaestina; zur Geschichte einer Idee (Zurich: Artemis 1950) p.92; Shneur Kalman, ‘A Book for the Mediocre’ in Likutei Amarim Tanya (London: Kehot 1973) pp.1–282.

72. Ehud Sprinzak, Brother Against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination (New York: Free P 1999) pp.291–94.

73. Weissbrod (note 1).

74. Peace Index Project (note 18).

75. Weissbrod (note 17), pp.190–204.

76. Sprinzak (note 72).

77. Sharon (note 4).