Pacifism and Anti-Militarism in the Period Surrounding the Birth of the State of Israel

The article focuses on groups and individuals who promoted the ideological options of anti-militarism and pacifism in the period immediately preceding the birth of the State of Israel and during its first decade. It presents the struggles of the Ihud group against the spreading of the Masada myth and positioning the IDF at the center of the Israeli collective cognition and of the Organization of War Resisters in Israel against the universal conscription and legal negation of the conscientious objection option. It sheds light on the long-forgotten absolute pacifism of two individuals—Natan Hofshi and Yosef Abilea—who were involved in the above organizations but also preached against what they saw as the dangerous taking over of the militaristic state of mind in the late pre-state days and early statehood.