La philosophie israélienne face à la guerre The Israeli Philosophy and the War

This essay examines the ways in which Israeli philosophy has approached the question of war. Because of the influence of the neo-Kantian pacifism on the first generation of Israeli philosophers, it is only in the aftermath of the 1982 Lebanon war that a punctual reflection on issues of military ethics develops (as for instance in Weiler’s and Casher’s thought). The problem of the peculiarity of Israel’s wars, however, has been the focus of other Israel thinkers only in the light of the relationship between State and religion (as in Leibowitz and Margalit) as well as between the civil society and the political institutions (as in Adi Ophir). In conclusion and in spite of its unquestionable originality, Israeli philosophy differs from other Western intellectual traditions only in the fact that it has generally avoided the question of war at the expense of other issues perceived as more urgent.