The 'metaphorical annihilation' of the Second Lebanon War (2006) from the Israeli political discourse

Combining discourse analysis with gender theories and the discipline of political studies, this article focuses on two discursive phenomena: first, it demonstrates the flexibility and efficiency of exclusion mechanisms beyond the realm of minority relations to abstract concepts but especially political events; second, it demonstrates the power of metaphor for neutralizing the negative cargo of controversial political situations for the purpose of transforming them into consensual events. The case study explored is the Israeli political discourse during the 33 days of the Second Lebanon War (2006). By intensive use of 'war-normalizing metaphors', the political discourse 'annihilated' the war: these metaphorical constructions framed the war as a 'normal' event, an integral part of Israeli daily life, despite the 3970 katyusha rockets that fell within the borders of Israel and the massive Israel Defense Forces bombing of southern Lebanon.