ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Waltz with Bashir – an animated documentary about a soldier’s recollection of his and other Israelis’ military service in the 1983 war in Lebanon – reveals the production of Israeli national identity through excessive and banal forms of heroism. These acts of heroism help construct what French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau would refer to as the general will: a socialising process of creating a political community of citizens through acts by individuals of military valour on the battlefield. The ‘waltz’ in the title of the film refers to a soldier dancing through sniper fire to rescue a wounded comrade. The chapter argues that the excessive depiction of heroism in the film reveals the gap between the ideal of military valour, which is key to the construction of Israeli identity, and the reality of military service, especially for soldiers such as those depicted in the film who share moral culpability for the 1983 Sabra al Shatila Palestinian refugee camp massacre. The heroes in the film are conceptualised as a type of Rousseauian lawgiver in drag, who brings the general will to the people to help form a community.
