National glorification and attachment differentially predict support for intergroup conflict resolution: Scrutinizing cross-country generalizability

Research on national identity distinguishes between national glorification and attachment. We tested whether glorification and attachment differentially predicted support for military and diplomatic conflict resolution strategies (CRS) in response to international conflicts. Using data collected in seven countries (Australia, United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Israel, China; total N = 1784), we investigated whether glorification and attachment can be equivalently measured (using tests of measurement invariance) and whether their relationships with CRS were generalizable across countries. The results revealed metric, but not scalar, measurement invariance of the two-factor structure of national identification across six countries, excluding China. Among these six countries, glorification predicted more support for military CRS, whereas attachment predicted more support for diplomatic CRS. Our study is novel in scrutinizing the cross-cultural generalizability of the bi-dimensional model of national identification. Implications for studying national identification and intergroup conflict cross-culturally are discussed.     

Talking about Antisemitism in France Before and After <Emphasis Type="Italic">Charlie Hebdo</Emphasis> and Hyper Cacher

This article explores tensions in French Jewish discourses about antisemitism in the post-2000 period. Drawing on commentary from French Jewish intellectuals, national Jewish organizations, and the French Jewish press from the mid-2000s until after the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attacks, I note a complex relationship between change and continuity in discursive characterizations of French antisemitism. While empirical manifestations of antisemitism were notably transformed by the Toulouse attacks of 2012, much French Jewish discourse insisted on continuity from the early 2000s onward. At the same time, Jewish narrative practices shifted rather dramatically. In a political context where Israel was often depicted as part of a history of violent settler colonialism, early 2000s Jewish discourse divorced French antisemitism from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and (post)colonial racism in France. After 2012, some Jewish commentators linked Israel to French antisemitism by likening terrorism in Israel with Islamic antisemitism in France. These disjunctures between narratives and empirical violence suggest that the “structures of feeling” behind Jewish reactions to contemporary antisemitism cannot be reduced to empirical questions about safety and security. Social scientists thus need to move beyond an empirical analysis of antisemitism itself and attend to the cultural and affective work Jewish discourses about antisemitism do in any particular moment.     

Goliath and David in Gaza: Indonesian myth-building and conflict as a cultural system

The ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is a well established part of Indonesian religio-political discourse. Anti-Zionism if not outright anti-Semitism is foundational; Israel has few friends in Indonesia. Various media reactions to the 2008–2009 Gaza attacks are placed within wider ethnographic and linguistic contexts to explore how news is spun in a cultural system of conflict. In becoming part of a cultural system of conflict, discourses about Israel take on the properties of myth.     

The remaining few: Christian Zionists making sense of a changed ecclesiastic landscape

Using a hermeneutical method, this study seeks to understand Christian Zionism as a meaningful practice in late modern Sweden. We visited four Christian Zionist conferences where we observed, analysed the sermons, and conducted interviews. The conferences are almost entirely attended by elderly people and the style is characterized by an old-time revivalist nostalgia. Results show that Israel is seen as a key to understanding a general conflict that the informants experience in late modern Swedish society and in relation to the majority church. Supporting Israel is intertwined with support for conservative values and theology and Israel becomes a nodal point that puts the greater conflict in a new perspective: identifying with Old Testament prophecies and God’s dealings with Israel gives hope and a sense of continuity to a revivalist movement that has become out of date. In Israel, Christian Zionists connect with both the past and the future, personally and as a movement.     

The clinician-investigator: unavoidable but manageable tension

The "difference position" holds that clinical research and therapeutic medical practice are sufficiently distinct activities to require different ethical rules and principles. The "similarity position" holds instead that clinical investigators ought to be bound by the same fundamental principles that govern therapeutic medicine--specifically, a duty to provide the optimal therapeutic benefit to each patient or subject. Some defenders of the similarity position defend it because of the overlap between the role of attending physician and the role of investigator in a research trial. This overlap is maximal when the same physician occupies both roles with respect to a particular patient-subject. We address the ethical tensions inherent in that role conflict and argue that the tensions are real but manageable. The difference position provides a sound ethical framework within which to manage those tensions, while the similarity position is unsatisfactory because it seeks to deny the existence of the tensions.     

Meaning threat can promote peaceful,not only military‐based approaches to intergroup conflict: The moderating role of ingroup glorification

Most research on threat documents its negative consequences. Similarly, most research on intergroup contexts has emphasized their negative behavioral effects. Drawing on the Meaning Maintenance Model and recent perspectives on the potential for positivity in intergroup conflict, we predicted that meaning threat can produce both antisocial and prosocial responses to intergroup conflict, depending on people's preexisting meaning frameworks. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that under meaning threat, low ingroup glorifiers strengthened their support for peaceful conflict resolution, whereas high ingroup glorifiers strengthened their support for military‐based conflict resolution. In the context of the Israel–Palestinian conflict, Study 3 found that low glorification was associated with greater support for peace during “hot” (but not “cold”) conflict, because hot conflict reduced their meaning in life. These findings are consistent with the notion that when meaning is threatened, people affirm their preexisting values—whether prosocial or antisocial—even in the context of intergroup conflict.     

UNDERSTANDING INTER-BRASIAN CONFLICT

The phenomenon of Sikh and Muslim conflict has been largely analysed in anthropological and sociological works in terms of a product of angry youth or ethnic hatred or religious passions. This paper explores the main ways in which the increasing tensions between Sikhs and Muslims have been articulated in the landscape of postcolonial Britain. It investigates the most prominent explanations provided both in academic and popular literature to understand the various causes seen to fuel this type of conflict, that is ethno-religious causes, multicultural issues and as the symptom of youth delinquency. The paper offers a critique of such accounts and moves towards an ontological understanding of conflict, that is, to elaborate the central role of conflict and its relationship to the political as the site for contestation between ‘friends and enemies’. This reading of Inter-BrAsian conflict enables us to open up a new space to re-evaluate the nature of Sikh and Muslim tensions within the diasporic context.     

Unique pathways to resilience across cultures

An international mixed methods study of resilience of 14 sites in eleven countries identified seven tensions that youth resolve in culturally specific ways. Resolution of these tensions is foundational to experiences of resilience. This paper reports on the qualitative findings from interviews with 89 youth. Results support a culturally embedded understanding of positive youth development that better accounts for young people's resilience in western and non-western countries. Specifically, the seven tensions identified include: access to material resources, relationships, identity, cohesion, power and control, social justice, and cultural adherence. Findings show that no one pattern in the resolution of these tensions predicts resilience better than another. A case study of a Palestinian boy demonstrates the intersection of the seven tensions and the uniqueness of their resolution. The implications of this work for interventions is discussed.     

Antisemitism in Sweden and Finland A documentation and a psychoanalytic discussion

Political developments in Sweden during the last decade, including a period of increased activities of the extreme right, coincide with a resurgence of previously suppressed antisemitic sentiments in the media and among politicians of different affiliations. Classical, often traditional Christian, antisemitic formulations are published in both Sweden and Finland in connection with media reports of the conflict between Israel and its neighbors. An increase of signs of anti-Jewish hatred among young Muslim immigrants in Sweden is described, as is the Rami-Bergman affair in the 1980s at Uppsala University in which a Professor of Theology testified under oath that there is a compelling Biblical commandment for Jews to kill strangers. Recent antisemitic statements made by high-ranking Finnish dignitaries of government, parliament and church against the background of 20'h century Finnish history are discussed and a government decision to deprive Israel of Finnish-made gasmasks during the American war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq is noted. We contend that traditional antisemitic thought patterns are visible in the Nordic countries and that they can be understood in terms of envy, the narcissism of small differences, the return of the repressed, and as representing an unconscious resentment against truthfulness.     

Citizenship Education and Human Rights in Sites of Ethnic Conflict: Toward Critical Pedagogies of Compassion and Shared Fate

The present essay discusses the value of citizenship as shared fate in sites of ethnic conflict and analyzes its implications for citizenship education in light of three issues: first, the requirements of affective relationality in the notion of citizenship-as-shared fate; second, the tensions between the values of human rights and shared fate in sites of ethnic conflict; and third, the ways in which citizenship education might overcome these tensions without falling into the trap of psychologization and instrumentalization, but rather focusing on providing opportunities for social and school practices that manifest shared fate and compassion in critical ways. It is argued that what teachers and schools should try to do is to make practices of shared fate and compassion possible through creating conditions for children and young people to experience what it means to enact such practices in sites of ethnic conflict. It is also suggested that teachers and schools in sites of ethnic conflict cannot produce ??new?? citizens on the basis of any values, no matter how ??noble?? these values may be. The most that can be done is to help children and young people to critically reflect upon the conditions under which people in sites of ethnic conflict can act on the basis of shared fate and compassion and provide support so that these possibilities can become realistic.     

Long-Term successful Marriages in Israel

Long-Term Marriages (LTM) in Israel is part of a larger on-going international research. Our study focuses on two related questions: Are all long term marriages successful and satisfying? Similar studies have been undertaken in the United States, Sweden, Germany, and Chile. This paper focuses on the Israeli results with a few cross-cultural comparisons. Israel adds several unique features to the research: the people to whom LTM applies have emigrated to Israel from 112 different countries, with different cultures and nationalities; how Holocaust survivors are distributed in comparison to the rest of the population; Israel has the lowest divorce rate in the west; family life being a highly valued norm among Jewish people, it will be interesting to determine what keeps couples together and whether the motives and ingredients for satisfying marriages are similar or different from other countries.     

Role conflicts of family members in family firms

The existence of role conflict among organizational members tends to create tensions inside organizations worldwide. However, in the context of family firms, having a dual role of being a member of a family and a member of the firm can represent interesting differences that make family firms an important form of organization to study. Following the tenets of the stewardship theory, our article develops a model where reciprocal altruism represents an antecedent to role conflict among family members. We further argue that perceptions of collective efficacy among family members have a moderating effect on the relationship between reciprocal altruism and role conflict. Last, we propose that role conflict in family firms reduces the family firm performance. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Cuba, Castro and Anti-Semitism

The Soviets provided Cuba with the model of attacking human rights activities and organizations as a necessary extension of the Jewish Zionist conspiracy. The identification of Castro with forces dedicated to the destruction of Israel was made plain in proclamation and practice. The Cuban position is that the war on terrorism is actually an example of “Liberation Imperialism.” Cubans make no reference to the repeated assaults on Israel, or the actual causes of the Middle East conflict—the denial of the right of Israel to exist as a Nation-State in that region. Anti-Semitism is so powerfully rooted as a cultural element in authoritarian cultures that even when, as in the case of Cuban communism, it entails the tortured twisting of doctrinal elements within Marxism–Leninism, such as doctrinal claims about the “materialist foundations of society,” its leaders will sacrifice the ideology to the reality. Part of the Castro attachment to communism is an overall contempt for the Jewish mini-Diaspora within the larger flight of Cubans to the United States and other places where the practice of free speech remain unimpeded. The regime of Fidel Castro has changed little in the past 49 years, compared to the rest of the world.     

Language and Civilian Deaths: Denying Responsibility for Casualties in the Gaza Conflict 2014

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that 1,462 civilians were killed in Gaza, and six civilians were killed in Israel during the conflict of 2104. This article uses discursive psychology to examine how Israeli spokespeople described the conflict, and Israel's actions, in ways that denied responsibility for civilian deaths. They did this using a number of discursive strategies. These included: (1) using passive and noun constructions which minimized reference to civilian deaths and erased Israeli involvement in those deaths; (2) repeatedly naming and providing details of Hamas weapons and attacks while avoiding reference to Israeli weapons and violence; (3) presenting Israel as only trying to avoid civilian deaths; and (4) describing Hamas as responsible for all deaths. These types of linguistic constructions allow governments and potential supporters to avoid acknowledging the consequences of their military actions and is one way that the virtuous nature of the ingroup is reinforced in political discourse.     

Rejecting Sectarianism: Palestinian Christians' Role in Muslim–Christian Relations

The study of Muslim–Christian relations often focuses on Islamic theology and Muslim behavior while overlooking the role that Christians play in shaping interreligious encounters. This article examines a series of historical examples from various periods of Palestinian history that highlight Arab Christians' insistence that they were Palestinian Arabs first and were fully engaged in the nationalist movement. Palestinian Christians' approach to local politics, even in the face of interreligious conflict, allowed them to maintain far better relations with Muslims than Arab Christians in some neighboring Arab countries. By way of comparison, the article highlights the Druze's acceptance of a unique communal relationship to the Zionist leadership and later, to the state of Israel. The article concludes that, while modern Islamism presents a challenge to minority Christian groups, historical examples suggest that Christians' actions have a profound impact on the nature of Christian–Muslim relations.     

Religion,Statelessness, and Belonging

Before 1948, and stretching back more than 1800 years, the Jewish people suffered all the problems of statelessness. The Zionist movement, 1897–1948, strove to end the condition of Jewish exile and statelessness. The great historical irony and tragedy is that the establishment of the State of Israel brought about the Nakba, the catastrophe, of the Palestinian people. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians see themselves as the victims of the conflict. They seem to be competitors in what I call a “suffering sweepstakes.” One of the problems with victimhood is that it prevents victims from assuming responsibility for their actions, including the victimization of others. In the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, both sides are victims and both sides are victimizers. The least helpful thing people can do – and regrettably many well‐meaning people do this – is to portray the situation in terms of a zero‐sum game, in which, if you’re pro‐Palestinian, you must be anti‐Israeli, and vice versa. We must be both pro‐Palestinian and pro‐Israeli, because we are pro‐people and, therefore, pro‐peace. The achievement of peace necessitates a two‐state solution based on some recognition of the two narratives. The best fulfilment of Zionism will come when there is a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.     

The epidemiology of suicide in Israel: international and intranational comparisons

A comparison of overall rates of completed suicide is made between Israel and selected European and North American countries. Rates for Israel are generally lower. A second comparison is made among different national-religious groups in Israel. Rates are higher for Jews than for the Muslim minority. An explanation is attempted for both sets of findings.     

Is there any scapegoat around? Determinants of intergroup conflicts at different categorization levels.

Recategorization at a higher level reduces tensions between groups. However, recategorization may cause conflicts between the common in-group and a new out-group. Additionally, determinants of conflict between subgroups may enhance conflict at the higher categorization level. In the context of German unification, the authors explored these suggestions with an East German 3-wave longitudinal study and a West German control group. Results show that a salient East German versus West German categorization enhances conflict between subgroups, whereas categorization as German enhances conflict at the common in-group level. Determinants of subgroup conflict also influence conflict at the inclusive level (Germans and foreigners). Thus, recategorization is a 2-edged instrument: Although it reduces conflict at the subgroup level, it may initiate conflict at the common in-group level.     

Family Conflict and Violent Electronic Media Use in School-Aged Children

Using a national sample of children aged 6 to 12 (N = 1,075), this study examined the relative merits of 3 theoretical perspectives on the relation between family conflict and children's use of electronic media (television and electronic games with violent content): (a) the family context hypothesis, whereby family conflict is positively related to violent electronic media use because family tensions will be reflected in children's interest in media with violent content; (b) the reaction hypothesis, whereby family conflict is positively related to nonviolent media use because children seek out nonviolent media content as a reaction against conflict in their family environment; and (c) the escape hypothesis, whereby family conflict is positively related to total electronic media use because children use media to escape family conflict regardless of content. Results supported the family context hypothesis. There was no support for the reaction and escape hypotheses.