Original Manuscript
Tunnel Operations in the
Israel Defense Forces:
Adapting the Warrior
Ethos to Post-Heroic
Conflict
Nehemia Stern
1
, Uzi Ben-Shalom
1
, Niv Gold
2
,
Corinne Berger
1
, Avishai Antonovsky
3
, and Dvir Peleg
1
Abstract
This study presents an empirically grounded account of tunnel combat operations in
the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) within the context of “post-heroic” warfare. Cur-
rent scholarship on “post-heroism” has viewed the technological and professional
standards of contemporary military conflicts as distancing the individual combatant
from the modern battlefield. Little attention has been given however to the ways in
which soldiers themselves experience and adapt to post-heroic conditions. Findings
based on in-depth semistructured interviews with 17 IDF tunnel combatants show
these soldiers actively reinterpreting the strategic importance placed on distancing
the warrior from the battlefield. This exploratory article suggests that an individual
“warrior ethos” still resonates amid the professional and technological contours of
post-heroic (underground) conflicts. By presenting a novel account of contemporary
tunnel warfare from the perspective of the combatants themselves, this research
sheds new light on the different personal dimensions that impact post-heroic military
operations.
1
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ariel University, Israel
2
Clinical Branch, Department of Mental Health, Medical Corps, Israel Defense Force, Israel
3
Mental Fitness Branch, Department of Mental Health, Medical Corps, Israel Defense Forces, Israel
Corresponding Author:
Nehemia Stern, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ariel University, Ariel 40700, Israel.
Email: nastern26@gmail.com
Armed Forces & Society
1-21
ª The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X20924040
journals.sagepub.com/home/afs
