No one can say with complete confidence what the long-term effects of the Gaza war and its auxiliary conflicts in the West Bank and on the border with Lebanon will be for Israel. But even today, it is safe to assume that the war marks the end of a 20-year era of peace (by Israeli standards) and prosperity (by anyone’s standards) and the return to the more militarized state and society Israel was for the first half-century of its existence.
For outsiders, whose image of Israel is largely formed when its periodic conflicts with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran reach the headlines, the idea that the country may become militarized seems improbable. Over the past two decades, it has fought no less than five wars and has been engaged in an extended shadow war with Iran. Its defense budget as a percentage of GDP is among the highest in the world. Some 69
