Striking Civilian Targets During the Lebanon War—A Social Psychological Analysis of Israeli Decision Makers

This article examines the socio-psychological mechanisms that guided decisions of the Israeli leadership to attack the civilian infrastructure during the Lebanon war in 2006. Based on reports by the Israeli governmental commission for the war, known as the Winograd Committee, a correlation between the de-legitimization of Hezbollah and the willingness to deploy military tactics and strategies that resulted in civilian devastation was found. Relying on a new model of the sources of protracted violent conflicts advanced by Rothbart and Korostelina (2006) and content analysis tools relating to ingroup-outgroup positioning theory, this article offers three distinct narrative patterns exhibited by Israeli decision makers. Such patterns reveal and solidify normative boundaries between Israel and Lebanese civilians in ways that justified in Israeli minds the attacks against the Lebanese infrastructure.

Authors:

Neta Oren - Neta Oren got her PhD in Political Science from Tel Aviv University. Her articles were accepted for publication by journals such as Journal of Peace Research, and International Journal of Intercultural Relations. Currently she holds the position of visiting scholar at the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. Her research interests are: conflict resolution, political psychology, political communication, public opinion and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Daniel Rothbart - Daniel Rothbart is Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at the Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution as well as Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at George Mason University. He earned a Ph.D. at Washington University, St. Louis. He has written numerous scholarly articles in this area, and a co-edited book, Identity, Morality, and Threat: Studies in Violent Conflict. Another co-authored book, Why They Die: Civilian Devastation in Violent Conflict, is forthcoming from the University of Michigan Press.

Karina V. Korostelina - Karina Korostelina is a Research Associate Professor at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, GMU and a Fellow of the European Research Center of Migration and Ethnic Relation (ERCOMER). Among her books are: The Social Identity and Conflict (2007); Structure and Dynamics of Social Identity (2003); The System of Social Identities: The Analysis of Ethnic Situation in the Crimea (2002); and The Role of History Education in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies (in course of publication). She is an editor of Identity, Morality and Threat (2006) and Interethnic Coexistence in the Crimea: The Ways of Achievement (2002).