Several scholars have recently drawn attention to state agencies’ efforts to produce “security homeland citizens”, striving to turn population into an active part of the security apparatus. The proposed paper will show that in many respects, Israel can serve as a prime example in this regard. This objective is achieved, the paper will argue, through mandatory military service during which Israelis often find themselves being executors of violent sovereign incursions which is rather unique experience among conscripts in the Western countries. It will be further demonstrated that active military service not only impacts perceptions of state practices in which the citizens are effectively implicated, but that it also forms their subjectivity in a way that is instrumental for security policies and other governmental objectives. The case of Israel thus confirms to some authors’ arguments about the blurred boundary between state and society which in many instances maintains certain power relations.
