The night watchman becomes a mercenary

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn the latest stage in the neoliberal transformation in Israel, privatization has reached into the security sector. The question of causality between Israel's security policies and the interests of its security industry has inspired extensive writing, producing a wide variety of conclusions. An alternative analysis through a ‘capital as power’ framework casts the relations as a shift in direction of the Israeli security elites, who are in a state of crisis. The attempt of Israel's security elites to capitalize on their experience and convert it into material wealth can explain both the privatization underway in Israel, and the frequent conflicts which are initiated by the Israeli government and which generate this experience. This attempt, however, undermines the collectivized production of security typical of a settler society at an early stage. The professionalization of the security elite goes hand in hand with a demilitarization of Israeli society. By adopting privatization as a coping mechanism against the threat posed by the ‘night watchman state’ neoliberal model, Israel's security elites straddle the bridge between public and private security institutions. They become more globalized and increasingly produce security in exchange for money, as mercenaries, instead of as ideological citizen-soldiers.