The Israeli army, the end of an affair? MEMO in Conversation with Prof. Haim Bresheeth-Zabner

In this week’s MEMO conversation, we speak to Professor Haim Bresheeth-Zabner, author of the acclaimed book An Army Like No Other, to discuss the outsized role of the military in Israeli nationhood. Professor Haim’s research chronicles how the Israeli army has ascended beyond a military body to become the most revered institution in Israel – with profound implications on politics, society, national psychology and on the prospect of peace.

Professor Haim traces the roots of the primacy of the Israeli army within the apartheid state and explains how a deep-rooted sense of military dominance and mythic invincibility inculcated over decades has been shaken by the 7 October attack. We explore how the special status of the Israeli army makes peace based on justice and international law an impossibility and what that might mean for the future.

Professor Haim Bresheeth is a filmmaker, photographer and a film studies scholar, retired from the University of East London where he worked since early 2002. He now teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). His books include the best-selling Introduction to the Holocaust, which he co-authored, and An Army Like No Other: How the IDF Made a Nation (2020).

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