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FrancoAngeli Journals

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No. 2 (2024): Comunità nella clinica e nella contemporaneità

The two soldiers’ Matrices in Israel during the legal Coup and the War with Hamas and Hezbollah – Interim Assessment

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/gruoa2-2024oa22922
Submitted
maggio 27, 2026
Published
2026-06-17

Abstract

The soldier’s Matrix is a significant social dynamic of an entire society, in which women, men, the elderly, and children are “recruited” to fight for existential survival or to secure honour and glory. “Selfless” devotion, complete identification and the decrease of shame, guilt, and empathy escalates aggression in society; tendencies to return to rigid, traditional social roles reinforce hierarchies and become norms. At the same time, the principle of “effectiveness” of the contribution to the community takes over relationships preferring functionality over connection. Social media and the cultural habitus identify with massification of thought and the war. In the last three years, two soldier’s Matrices have dominated Israel’s sociopolitical life: the approximate year-long struggle by the liberal camp against an attempted legal coup, followed by a second soldier’s Matrix involving terror, existential anxieties, and hostage-taking, started by Hamas on October 7. The relations between the two matrices continue to influence social processes in Israel today and will influence Israeli society in the future.

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