Brothers and Others in Arms: The Making of Love and War in Israeli Combat Units

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Summary: The secrets of combat homoeroticism
Review: A thought provoking fusion of love and war, this books offers unsettling real life stories of gay and bisexual men in combat. As one Israeli soldier put it: "when the war started, things became insane, completely shattering conventions. It is permitted to kill...War is an unbelievable thing, anarchy. So everyone came out of the closet during war and went wild."
The second part of the book explores these paradoxes of masculine military culture. The author unveils, chapter by chapter, the thin line between brothers in arms and brothers in bed. How does sexuality reinforce the combat thrill and the "sexual targeting" of the enemy? How do individuals manage their gay identity and at the same time stick to the codes of soldiery and masculinity?
In fact, the book reveals what is really very old news: That military life is all about male homoeroticism! The ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Vikings, and later the Turks, the Japanese, Papua New Guinea tribes, and the modern Israelis - all acknowledged the intimate ties between fellow warriors as an emotional resource for military accomplishment. Irrespective of sexual orientation, these erotic tensions are managed, controlled and then channeled and used as an aggressive driving force to strike at the real enemy, not for targeting your own friends. Reading this book, one can't understand why the American military adheres to his anti-gay witch-hunt, which only reminds everyone this open secret that this book so vividly describes and analyzes.


Rating:
Summary: Thumbs Up!
Review: From Hayworh Press: "Examine the ways that gay and bisexual men reconstruct their identity-in the steaming melting pot of military life!

This unique book combines in-depth interviews with gay/bisexual Israeli soldiers with a systematic qualitative analysis of what they have to say. In their own words, you'll hear these fighting men discuss both their combat experience and their social and erotic experiences with their fellow soldiers. Then the insightful analyses of each soldier's identification with masculine-military culture gives you a new awareness of how combat is related to male desire.

Brothers and Others in Arms brings you the words of these Israeli men of action. Steeped in 'masculitary'culture (a term fully explored in the book), these soldiers--on missile boats, working in reconnaissance units, in tanks, as paratroopers and pilots-share with you the inner workings of their minds and their passions as they perform their life-threatenting jobs along with their peers, both gay and straight.

Essential to understanding gay/bisexual life in Israel and its military, Brothers and Others in Arms focuses on the emotional process behind military performance."