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2012 Winner of the Shapiro Award for the Best Book in Israel Studies, presented by the Association for Israel StudiesWhose life is worth more?That is the question that states inevitably face during wartime. Which troops are thrown to the first lines of battle and which ones remain relatively intact? How can various categories of civilian populations be protected? And when front and rear are porous, whose life should receive priority, those of soldiers or those of civilians? In Israel’s Death Hierarchy, Yagil Levy uses Israel as a compelling case study to explore the global dynamics and security implications of casualty sensitivity. Israel, Levy argues, originally chose to risk soldiers mobilized from privileged classes, more than civilians and other soldiers. However, with the mounting of casualty sensitivity, the state gradually restructured what Levy calls its “death hierarchy” to favor privileged soldiers over soldiers drawn from lower classes and civilians, and later to place enemy civilians at the bottom of the hierarchy by the use of heavy firepower. The state thus shifted risk from soldiers to civilians. As the Gaza offensive of 2009 demonstrates, this new death hierarchy has opened Israel to global criticism.

Civil-military relations --- Casualty aversion (Military science) --- Aversion, Casualty (Military science) --- Bloodless warfare --- Strategy --- Israel. --- I.D.F. --- IDF --- Israel Defense Forces --- Israeli Defense Force --- Israeli Defense Forces --- Tsahal --- Tzahal --- Zahal --- צבא --- צבא הגנה לישראל --- צה׳׳ל --- ישראל. --- Haganah (Organization) --- Regulations. --- Israel --- Military policy.

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Modern democracies face tough life-and-death choices in armed conflicts. Chief among them is how to weigh the value of soldiers' lives against those of civilians on both sides. The first of its kind, Whose Life Is Worth More? reveals that how these decisions are made is much more nuanced than conventional wisdom suggests. When these states are entangled in prolonged conflicts, hierarchies emerge and evolve to weigh the value of human life.Yagil Levy delves into a wealth of contemporary conflicts, including the drone war in Pakistan, the Kosovo war, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the US and UK wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cultural narratives about the nature and necessity of war, public rhetoric about external threats facing the nation, antiwar movements, and democratic values all contribute to the perceived validity of civilian and soldier deaths. By looking beyond the military to the cultural and political factors that shape policies, this book provides tools to understand how democracies really decide whose life is worth more.

Casualty aversion (Military science) --- War casualties --- Military policy. --- Defense policy --- Military readiness --- Military history --- Sociology, Military --- War --- National security --- Casualties, War --- War victims --- War wounds --- Aversion, Casualty (Military science) --- Bloodless warfare --- Strategy --- Government policy. --- Political aspects --- Casualties --- Casualties (Statistics, etc.) --- body count. --- casualty sensitivity. --- collateral killing. --- force protection. --- legitimacy of sacrificing. --- legitimacy of using force. --- risk taking. --- risk transfer.