In the Shadow of Syria’s Guns: Frontier Kibbutzim and the Israeli Emotional Regime

Abstract

The Israel-Syrian border was a constant point of friction from the time the Israeli- Syrian ceasefire agreement was signed in 1949. Hostilities erupted over water resources and the cultivation and control of the demilitarized zones. Northern kibbutzim that took part in triggering Syrian violence became the victims of that violence. Since the late 1950s and especially in the years preceding the 1967 war, tension escalated. The article covers the 1956-1967 interwar years by tracing the emotional reaction of kibbutz members who were exposed to Syrian violence. It focuses on one primary emotion - fear.

Using Barbara Rosenwein’s concept of emotional communities, I argue that the kibbutz members developed unique cultural practices that enabled them to overcome fear. Other sectors of society, however, especially complacent city-dwellers, despite their genuine feelings and gestures of solidarity with the kibbutzim, considered the frontier settlements’ cultural and emotional norms different or even alien. The article employs William Reddy’s concept to demonstrate that the emotional norms that had developed in the Yishuv period and nurtured in the kibbutzim were losing their grip. New role models were created as the Israeli emotional regime changed.