Dina Ben Ezra• Dorit Roer-Strier.. Socializing Children Under Fire: Western Women and Palestinian Men 1 INTRODUCTION This article examines the interface of cultural adaptation patterns of intermarried couples and the socialization of children in a context of political conflict. The paper is derived from a broader investigation of identity change in intercultural marriages between Palestinian men and Western women (Ben Ezra, 2003), carried out in 2001-2002, during the second Intifada (an Arabic term used for the uprising of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and West Bank against the Israeli military occupation of these territories). While cultural adaptation patterns of intermarried couples have been discussed in more detail by Roer-Strier and Ben Ezra (2006), this paper sheds light on the interplay between child socialization, parental cultural adaptation patterns and macro-level variables such as the Israeli -Palestinian conflict. The Interface of Cultural Adaptation of Parents and Child Socialization in Multicultural Families Traditionally, the enormous body ofliterature on child socialization has strongly emphasized the role of the parents. In more recent decades, socialization is no longer viewed as a one track venture, but rather as a multifaceted phenomenon including different levels of interactions. Ecological theory of child development (Bronfenbrenner, 1999) introduced the importance of macro-level influences. As the cognitive revolution took hold and learning theory (as related to socialization) was reformulated as cognitive social learning theory, the active role of children as participants in their own socialization was increasingly stressed. Currently, there is an increasing emphasis on the role of parents' and children's mutual perceptions and reciprocal understanding of each other 's dispositions and intentions, as determinants of their influence upon one another (Maccoby, 1992, 2000). The sociology of childhood focuses on how children are affected by social changes in families, and by the growing diversity of families and cultural changes, such as those related to immigration (Corsaro, 2005). ' Acknowledgment s: Many thanks to the Zucker Foundation for awarding the Zucker Scholarship. The authors thank the participants for opening the doors to their hearts and experiences. Special thanks to Mrs. Annette Wexler, Mr. Leo H. Lubow, Dr. Rena Shimoni and Dr. Yakhin Shimoni for their editorial assistance and to Tina H. Llop and Karima Direche-Slimani for their translation assistance. * Dina Ben Ezra, 1725, Rout e de Rog ue s, 13540 Puyricard, France. ** Dorit Roer-Strier, The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91905 Jerusalem, Israel. Journal of Comparative Family Studies 2009.40:1-24.