s, women serve two years, compared to the men’s three years, and constitute a third of the military force. Thus women are perceived as not fully belonging, and make up the “rear” that requires the protection of an army run by men. The military–industrial sector is intertwined with the state’s economic, political, and social elites, and as a potential employer provides material benefits to men with full military training and experience. It also provides such men with symbolic capital or social resources on which to draw after their release from military duty. Women are usually excluded from decision-making processes regarding their own role and status, and even the highest-ranked women do not participate regularly in the meetings of the general staff. Even women instructors of combat, or women who perform vital intelligence work, and women commanders of male platoons are restricted by formal rules and informal gender norms. Token women in highly prestigious units double their efforts to perform masculinity by mimicking the style, tone, and conduct of male commanders. For the most part women serve by performing a variety of stereotypically feminine functions, such as nurturing, caring, and bringing a civilizing effect or a touch of home and family, and the promise of physical and sexual charm, as prize for male heroes. While women’s accomplishments are belittled so as to aggrandize male achievement, women’s presence and ability to perform similar jobs promotes male competitiveness and provides incentives for achievements. Despite a few legal victories that opened up doors to combat duties and prestigious military units, and despite formal equities, the essay predicts that this course of incremental action will not lead to radical change. Such change may be achieved through a shift to peaceful policies, the creation of a voluntary and professional service that will replace the compulsory draft, and a demilitarization of Israeli society and culture.
Ruth Halperin-Kaddari’s “The Halachic Trap: Marriage and Family Life” deals with restrictions and discriminatory practices embedded in Israel’s domestic law. As in other nation-states, private life is governed by religious law, which traditionally favors male interests. For the Jewish population in Israel the stricter Orthodox interpretation of Halachah usually applies to marriage and divorce issues, flanked with a competing civil jurisdiction dealing strictly with property issues during divorce. During marriage, extramarital affairs carry far harsher consequences for women than for men. Divorce cannot take place without the husband granting his wife a formal bill of divorce. This opens the door to monetary extortion by which “anchored” wives (agunot) are willing to give up economic benefits in exchange for their freedom. Despite prohibitions on minor marriage and bigamy, there are frequent concessions made in the Muslim community governed by Shari’a law. In light of restrictions on marriage eligibility, many couples circumvent the law by seeking civil marriages abroad, or in the Jewish secular majority, by opting for nonmarital cohabitation. Same-sex couples have also won significant legal victories in the 1990s, notably in the area of adoption and reproductive rights. In the last decade, legislation was passed recognizing single-parent families, the majority of which are led by divorced women, and according them basic benefits. Israel’s familistic and pro-natalist ethos promotes reproductive technologies and protects and regulates surrogacy, but the Halachic provisions of paternity undermine the mothers’ equal status even in this area. Non-Jewish women’s status is equally precarious, notably that of Muslim women due to lesser access to a civil court system, and to the patriarchal social and national ethos that favors a more conservative interpretation of Sharia law. Despite the formal legal prohibition of polygamy and unsupervised unilateral divorce by the husband, the laws are not enforced. Guardianship is granted to mothers only during early childhood and later reverts to the