ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how civilian control of the military in Israel has shifted over time from an institutional to an extra-institutional mode. It analyzes the cyclical pattern from militarization and demilitarization to remilitarization. The chapter illustrates how tensions caused by the simultaneous development of the processes have created contradictions in Israel's civil–military relations. In 1967, disputes about how to respond to Egypt's transfer of considerable forces into the Sinai Peninsula on Israel's southern border, and closure of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, seriously challenged civilian control. Institutional mechanisms of civilian control over the military have been further reinforced since the 1970s by extra-institutional mechanisms, backed by a more subversive media. Enhancement of civilian control of the military has been accompanied–and affected–by sequential processes of militarization, demilitarization and remilitarization. Until the 2000s, militarization and demilitarization promoted civilian control. A new political space opened up to collective actors from the left and right alike, who challenged previously consensual military policies.
