ABSTRACT
Scholars of women's political participation often raise the question whether an intrinsic connection exists between womanhood or motherhood and peace. The use of mothers' language creates sharp awareness of the hopelessness inherent in the continuing state of conflict, and introduces a new dimension into a country's national discourse. Moreover, with the final ending of the affair, the Israeli person on the street returned them, in this respect, to square one; the name by which the group is remembered in the public's consciousness is "Mothers Against Silence," and not "Parents Against Silence." The climax of the mothers' movements is the positioning of the two attitudes, the "tribal" and the "global," opposite each other. The mothers'/parents' movements did have important repercussions in the national security debate. To organize on the basis of a certain functional identity was not unique to the mothers.
