Societal Values: Impact on Israel Security—The Kibbutz Movement as a Mobilized Elite

This article examines the changes that have taken place since the 1948 War of Independence in the contribution by the Kibbutz Movement to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and to Israel’s national security. It deals with the changing forms of contribution by kibbutz-members to service in the IDF, in the context of changes occurring in wider Israeli society, and in the relations between society and the IDF in particular. The article’s focus is on the changes that took place in the enlisting of kibbutz youth to the IDF, and how many of them volunteered for the officers’ course, pilots’ course, and for combat units. All these data are compared with the changes that took place in Israeli society as a whole.