ENGENDERING THE GULF-WAR - ISRAELI NURSES AND THE DISCOURSE OF SOLDIERING

The universalized, gendered myth of war is that of men in arms and wom en at home. The Israeli experience of the Gulf War spelled an opposite situation in which fighters were not called for active military dutie s and the home became ''the front.'' This reversal was especially blat ant in the case of Israeli nurses stationed in the hospital. This arti cle analyzes the rhetorics of war among these nurses, describing how i t changed from panic and uncertainty, through a discourse of soldierin g, to frustration. This transformation is interpreted within a dual fr amework, as a professional gender struggle embedded in a national scri pt of militarism.