2 Unbalancing and Balancing the Rights

Abstract

This chapter examines the dynamics of matching the right to protect and the right to protection in Israel. It begins with an overview of the relationship between the military hierarchy and the social hierarchy in Israel and the role played by the Israel Defense Force in legitimizing social inequalities in the country. It then considers how, until the 1980s, rights were balanced for the secular middle class, which advanced the community's right to protection in exchange for upholding its right to protect, which was convertible into political and social rights. It also explains how the legitimacy to sacrifice declined after the 1970s and especially during the 1980s, following the drop in the motivation of the secular middle class occasioned by the First Lebanon War (1982). The chapter concludes with a discussion of the impact of the devalued right to protect on the middle class, casualty sensitivity, and bereavement discourse.