Accordingly, the debate surrounding violence in Israeli society and its institutions has largely centered on a preconceived perception of violence, how much of it is “necessary” and how those ostensible wild weeds should be treated. The intensification in recent decades of the halakhic (Jewish law-centered) discourse that encourages violence and revenge has also followed that same basic logic: If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first; show no mercy to those who are cruel; and remember what Amalek did to you.

In other words, violence, even in an extreme form, is sometimes necessary. The question is only whether it will be inflicted by the state, in a proper “statesmanlike” manner, or by individuals seeking to act as the vanguard of the body politic.

Along the way we have missed two key points. The first is that violence is not only a means to implement policy, it is an effective producer of self-identity; and second, and more significant, in recent years violence has been undergoing a “revolution of joy,” to use an expression coined by popular Israeli singer Omer Adam.

Probably the clearest manifestation of the ostensible joy of violence takes the form of what’s referred to as “happy Jews.” In 2015, journalists Akiva Novick and Chaim Levinson explained in their report, “The Complete Hilltop Lexicon,” that happy Jews are those “who are not bound to the archaic conventions and rules of morality, and carry out ‘price tag’ [retaliatory operations against Palestinians] with a smile on their face.”

More recently, the term has come into wide use on settler sites like HaKol HaYehudi (the Jewish voice, in Hebrew), which even styles itself as providing “news for happy Jews,” and in WhatsApp and Telegram channels such as Hilltops News or The Struggle Channel. These groups have thousands of members who freely publish their content under their full name, with phone numbers – and exude happiness.

In some cases the reports are first-hand (“Happy Jews gave this car the full treatment – Hebrew labor you won’t find anywhere else,” as was written with unabashed pride in reference to a violent assault against four women and a toddler from the Bedouin city of Rahat, who accidentally strayed into the settler outpost of Givat Ronen last year); and, in some cases, indirectly (“Arabs report that happy Jews burned homes of Bedouin near the village of Jaba northeast of Jerusalem”). Invitations to carry out pogroms are circulated on colorful, cheerful posters that look more like flyers for an open-air rave than calls to violence.