MANAGING A MORAL DILEMMA - ISRAELI SOLDIERS IN THE INTIFADA

The Palestinian uprising (intifada) in the territories occupied by Isr ael in 1967 has created a moral dilemma for at least some Israeli sold iers who are assigned to partcipate, however reluctantly, in the milit ary effort to suppress it. The dilemma consists in strong commitment t o the army, on the one hand, and objections to its tactics of repressi on on the other. In an attempt to observe the processes of coping with the resulting dissonance-widely assumed to result in the surrender to some sort of routinization-conversations were initiated with soliders from an upper-middle class background. Their discourse reveals that c oping takes the form of searching for (1) cognitive reorganization thr ough frames that reduce inconsistency and justify obedience; and (2) i mprovising behavior and negotiating with external reality so as to mak e the dilemma more livable. But while the findings, on the whole, are in line with the axiom that dissonance is reduced even when inconsiste ncy is maintained, it is proposed here that in certain cases where two ego-involving commitments conflict, an individual may willfully attem pt to preserve the pain of dissonance rather than to alleviate it.