Israel and the Study of Warfare
Quentin Runyan
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
ANT 101
Professor June Maul
19 July 2010
Israel and the Study of Warfare
What is culture? Cultural anthropologists study culture and how it pertains to peoples’ everyday lives; but it has been debated for decades on how to define a culture. Our textbook defines culture as “people’s learned and shared behavior and beliefs” (Miller, 2007, pg. 4). The topic is culture; but which one? There are so many different cultures globally to choose from that it seems impossible to just choose one. I chose a topic on Israel, the warfare of Israel. I will describe the many different aspects of Israel’s warfare and how they have dominated most of the Middle East for centuries. Following that will be the comparison of Israel’s warfare to our own, here in the United States. I chose the topics of warfare and Israel because they are interesting to me, how such a small country has been taken on by such tremendous armies; yet still has found a way to overcome those forces and has built the second leading Air Force in the world only under the United States.
Firstly, conflicts are not new to Israel considering they have been fighting a holy war for centuries; but they were not the country of Israel at that time. “That more than a half-century after its establishment, Israel lacks clearly defined and internationally recognized borders; that it is still engaged in an unending conflict with its neighbors; that many of its citizens continue to believe that it is facing existential threats; and that its Security Sector, 2 and especially the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) plays a major role in almost all spheres—all these have made this topic perennially relevant and debatable” (Barak & Sheffer, 2007). The undefined borders have caused many tentions in the Middle East and many wars between Israel, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, and other Arab nations. One of the recent wars between...