Israeli society has seen a gradual decrease in the proportion of compulsory and reserve soldiers amid growing criticism of the military from those who have previously served. This criticism is connected to a willingness on their part to organize collective action for postservice benefits and influence other postservice-related issues. We argue that a new theoretical concept of an “emergent veteran identity” could explain this new social phenomenon for both the Israeli military and others. In this study, 248 Israeli veterans completed questionnaires designed to investigate emergent veteran identity. The results reveal that emergent veteran identity was explained by the perception of the role of the military in society, by the organizational dimensions of veterans’ transition into society, and, to a lesser extent, by combat experiences. Female veterans had a higher emergent veteran identity and exhibited higher transformation limbo. The article also discusses the utility of this new concept for the study of veterans in general and the results’ implications for threats to and the loss of military identity.

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In recent years, Israel has witnessed two significant processes that challenge the dominant republican discourse that prioritizes military over national-civic service (known as The Israeli national-civilian service—NCS)in terms of contributing the constitution of citizenship and of the material and symbolic convertibility offered to service candidates. The first is related to the expanding range of roles offered in the NCS. The second, related process, which is our current focus, occurs among young religious women from the urban upper-middle class who respond to this expansion by seeking to serve in technological roles, given their high qualifications. Combined, these processes transform the status of the NCS and accelerate the de-monopolization of military service. To examine the contribution of religious young women to the change in the status of service in Israel, we conducted a narrative analysis of interviews with service candidates. Our analysis revealed their strategic use of four different discourses: the neo-liberal economic discourse, the liberal rights and self-realization discourse, the ethnonational discourse, and the religious gender discourse. The way the participants negotiated the four discourses to justify their selection of either military or national-civic service structured their agency as actors transforming the power equation between the two types of service.

IntroductionThe current research explores the association between political views, combat experiences, and the adaptation of soldiers to post-service life. Violent experiences in military service were explored as contributors to both positive and negative dimensions of adaptation, while political views served as possible mediators.MethodsThree hundred and twenty Israeli veterans participated in the study.ResultsPolitical views were correlated with adaptation, especially left-to-right voting and anti-militarism. The results support the mediating role of political beliefs (left–right voting and militarism) in the relationship between combat experience and adaptation to post-service life.DiscussionWe contend that political perceptions affect adaptation through sense-making of the combat experiences and the individual processing of these experiences, and the willingness to continue in reserve service, which allows social support and recognition. In addition, they are linked to a sense of bitterness following the reduction of public participation in military and reserve service.