The Haredi Nahal battalion has been operating within the IDF since 1999. It originally intended to admit recruits from the Haredi population, but over the years its lines opened to Yeshivot students, both National-Haredi and Hesder yeshivot alike. The author examines the relationships which developed both within the battalion itself and between the military and the Haredi institutions. Alongside an attempt to evaluate any opportunities rooted in bringing closer a religious population to the IDF, the author examines the risk involved in founding an independent, sectoral unit in the army - a notion quite contrary to the fundamental IDF concept.

This research focuses on the internal discourse of the Gush Katif settlers, exposes their socio-political perceptions, and attempts to understand the motives and the socio-psychological reasoning determining the settlers’ conduct. An understanding of the settlers’ discourse entails understanding their perception of “a home” -  a geographic location strongly tied with their individual and community identity.  The research highlights the frequent tension between the humane, individual and communal discourse and the national-religious discourse.

• This essay details the urban consequences of the Al Aqsa Intifadah and the separation barrier project on Jerusalem. In West Jerusalem, the onset of terror, and specifically a wave of suicide bombings, hastened the city’s decentralization. Rapid decline of the economy and the disappearance of tourism further battered the city’s vitality. Israel’s  increased barriering of the city, culminating in the separation barrier project, was a major low for the city’s Arab inhabitants, and the urban fabric of East Jerusalem. Neighborhoods inside and outside the barrier were divided, with massive effects on daily life, work opportunities, property values, and relocation patterns. The paper argues that without a strategic package of urban recovery measures, Jerusalem is in danger of becoming locked in a spiral of decline.