An Army Like No Other: How the Israel Defense Forces Made a Nation

by Haim Bresheeth-Zabner

Overview

A history of the IDF that argues that Israel is a nation formed by its army.

The Israeli army, officially named the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), was established in 1948 by David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, who believed that 'the whole nation is the army'. In his mind, the IDF was to be an army like no other. It was the instrument that might transform a diverse population into a new people. Since the foundation of Israel, therefore, the IDF has been the largest, richest and most influential institution in Israel's Jewish society and is the nursery of its social, economic and political ruling class.

In this fascinating history, Bresheeth charts the evolution of the IDF from the Nakba to the continued assaults upon Gaza, and shows that the state of Israel has been formed out of its wars. He also gives an account of his own experiences as a young conscript during the 1967 war. He argues that the army is embedded in all aspects of daily life and identity. And that we should not merely see it as a fighting force enjoying an international reputation, but as the central ideological, political and financial institution of Israeli society. As a consequence, we have to reconsider our assumptions on what any kind of peace might look like.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781788737869
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	08/25/2020
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	699,566
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Professor Haim Bresheeth-Zabner is a Filmmaker, Photographer and a Film Studies Scholar, and Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He is the editor of The Gulf War and the New World Order, (with Nira Yuval-Davis), and the author of The Holocaust for Beginners (with Stuart Hood). His films include the widely shown State of Danger (1989, BBC2)—a documentary on the first Palestinian Intifada—and London is Burning, after the 2011 riots. He has also written in the Israeli Ha’aretz and the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Weekly.

Editorial Reviews

Israel’s drive to become a modern-day nuclear Sparta could only be ensured by An Army Like No Other—an army at the centre of illegal occupation, the creation of settler-colonial facts on the ground and Israeli identity self-fashioning. Thoroughly researched and painstakingly documented, this book is a must for those seeking to understand the centrality of the most powerful institution of Israel and for those who wish to see a just and lasting solution in Palestine–Israel.”
—Nur Masahla, author of Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History

“Israeli left-wing critics of the Zionist state have long described it as ‘an army with a state, instead of a state with an army.’ And yet they have produced very few studies of the Israeli military-industrial complex over the years. In helping to fill this gap, Haim Bre-sheeth makes a crucial contribution to the critical study of the Zionist enterprise.”
—Gilbert Achcar, author of The Arabs and the Holocaust

“Bresheeth—one of the most important anti-colonial intellectuals of our era—takes the Israeli army as an entry point to undertake a deep analysis of Jewish-Israeli society. The original contribution of the book lies in its ambitions and scope: Bresheeth brilliantly describes the way an army whose ethos is rooted in Jewish historical trauma, has grown to become the occupation arm of zionism, the motor of its settler-colonial domination and the basis of its politics of separation.”
—Eyal Weizman, author of Hollow Land

“This book places the Israeli army under an uncompromising lens. It reveals a yawning gap between the propaganda about ‘the most moral army in the world’ and the dark reality. Through a wide-ranging historical survey, studded with little known facts, it exposes the army for what it really is: a brutal police force of a brutal settler-colonial state. Essential for understanding the political sociology of Israel today and the reasons for the impasse in the Israeli–Palestinian so-called ‘peace process.’”
—Avi Shlaim, author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World.

“A hard-eyed look at the role of Israel’s army in the creation of the Jewish state.”
—Kirkus

“It is said that Israel is an army with a state. This book validates fully this assumption. With a clear and accessible style and with illuminating of many hidden chapters in Israel’s history, Bresheeth exposes fully the militarizationof the Jewish State. The book unpacks successfully the military grip of the IDF on every aspect of life in Israel and Palestine, from crucial decisions of going to war to the formulation the policies towards the Palestinians. Even if you are a knowledgeable reader on the topic, this book will be an essential contribution to your library.”
—Ilan Pappe, author of 10 Myths About Israel

“An original and a remarkable interpretation of the wide-ranging impact of the military on Israeli society and one of the most insightful and challenging works on Israeli society from 1948 to our days. His book traces the ways in which military power acquired legitimacy in the civilian society and how the use of organized violence became an acceptable solution to all conflicts in the Arab-Israeli history. Anyone interested in understanding the Middle East should read this book.”
—Shlomo Sand, author of The Invention of the Jewish People

“This is a very important book, offering a highly timely and rigorously documented view of the military/nation-state nexus in Israel, its links and dynamics, and its global sources of power. In the process it unavoidably affords us a view of the workings of the contemporary global order, in which Israel’s role as policeman and instrument is becoming more critical to the repressive, discriminatory and surveillance operations that are being increasingly developed and deployed today.”
—Lena Jayyusi, Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies

“Bresheeth-Zabner has written a comprehensive and well-researched history of the Israeli military. In doing so, he has also issued an indictment of its brutal tactics, its political power and its destructive effects on the Israeli state.”
—Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch

“An Army Like No Other is a real page-turner, combining history and analysis with firsthand tidbits from within the belly of the beast … Bresheeth-Zabner deserves substantial praise for his pursuit of truth.”
—Belén Fernández, Jacobin

“An insightful look into the history of Israeli militarism and the military ethos that marks both state and society.”
—Rod Such, Electronic Intifada

“Discredits the propaganda of ‘the most moral army’ meticulously, revealing an institution that is historically violent and which needs the perpetuation of further violence to sustain itself. This is a must-read book. “
—Ramona Wadi, Middle East Monitor

“Carefully argued … part polemic, part history, part cry for justice.”
—Mehul Srivastava, Financial Times

“By looking at the army as a way to understand Jewish-Israeli society, Bresheeth-Zabner has produced an insightful analysis, a key to why this state is a problem for the Palestinians, the region and for a world where a militarised, racist nuclear state will not look for peace.”
—Miriam Scharf, Socialist Review

From the Publisher

2020-02-09
A history of Israel focused on the role of the army in becoming “an apartheid state.”

Bresheeth-Zabner, who teaches at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, begins his account with the 19th-century Zionist program to relocate European Jews to Palestine to escape pervasive anti-Semitism. The stated goal of the movement was to reclaim the biblical homeland as a new Jewish state. With the drive for independence after World War II, a genuine Israeli military came into being. Despite its name, the Israel Defense Forces, established in 1948, served as a vehicle to gain control of territory, usually by expelling the Indigenous occupants. As a result, Israel has been in an almost constant state of war—not because of external threats but as a way to justify repression of the Palestinians. The author argues that the IDF routinely commits atrocities against Palestinians and other Arab populations within and beyond Israel’s borders. He thoroughly documents the growth of a military-industrial complex as a major driver of Israel’s economy, with customers all over the world and major support by the U.S.—again, to the benefit of the IDF. Furthermore, the central role of the IDF means that Israeli politics is determined by military considerations, with every political party recruiting ex-generals as candidates. Bresheeth-Zabner drives home his points relentlessly, with chapter after chapter portraying an Israel in which non-Jews are second-class citizens, at best, and politicians pay only lip service to democratic principles. For general readers, the narrative is a difficult slog, with numerous references to names and events that will be unfamiliar to many nonscholars. Nor is it smoothly written, with the author relying more heavily on the blunt force of his arguments. However, readers with a strong interest in this ongoing quandary may find some value.

A hard-eyed look at the role of Israel’s army in the creation of the Jewish state.

Kirkus Reviews