Peace despite everything

In attempting to assess the extent to which Rabin’s exhortation might have been taken to heart, observers conventionally focus their attention on the mechanical nuts and bolts of Israel’s military structure. As a result, the various available analyses of ‘the military balance’ tend to measure force ratios in terms of hardware (tanks, fighter planes). Manpower too is often reduced to a matter of statistics. Although undoubtedly relevant indices of Israel’s military preparedness, these cannot constitute the entire picture. As strategic theory has long appreciated, and as recent research has emphasized, just as important a gauge of potential power is the quality and character of the individual troops entrusted with the maintenance and operation of whatever armour is placed at their disposal.2 Such is the perspective adopted in the following essay. Concentrating principally on the human component of Israel’s force structure, it seeks to provide a synoptic.