Israel/Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew Tzahal, are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel. The IDF is headed by its Chief of General Staff (Ramatkal), the Ramatkal, subordinate to the Defense Minister of Israel; As of August 2010, Gabi Ashkenazi has served as Chief of Staff since 2007.
An order of Defense Minister David Ben-Gurion on May 26, 1948, officially set up the Israel Defense Forces as a conscript army formed out of the paramilitary group Haganah, incorporating the militant groups Irgun and Lehi. The IDF served as Israel's armed forces in all the country's major military operations — including the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the 1956 Sinai War, the 1967 Six-Day War, the War of Attrition, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Operation Litani, the 1982 Lebanon War, Operation Defensive Wall, the 2006 Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead. While originally the IDF operated on three fronts—against Lebanon and Syria in the north, Jordan and Iraq in the east, and Egypt in the south—after the 1979 Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty, it has concentrated its activities in southern Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories, including the First and the Second Intifada.
Events carried out
| Event | Location | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 Gaza Massacre | Gaza Israel | A massacre of at least 135 unarmed protestors including many women and children, and the wounding of many thousands more by Israeli IDF sniper teams, during the Palestinian 'Great March of Return' and the weeks following its end on 15 May 2018 |
| 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War | Gaza Israel Iraq Egypt Syria Palestine Lebanon Indian Ocean Golan Heights | Hamas attack on dozens of illegal Israeli settlements in Southern Israel provoking mass retaliatory killings by Israel. Corporate media call it the Israeli "9-11", while critics of Israel refer to "10-7" as a staged, military operation in order to manufacture consent for a disproportionate response. |
| 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War/Israeli invasion of Gaza | Gaza | After October 7, Israel invaded Gaza with widespread international support. The IDF went on a widely reported revenge killing spree. Even by Israel's own account, they killed 19,500 Palestinian civilians after half a year of bombing hospitals, schools and civilian towers, utilising numerous condemned tactics. |
| Gaza War 2014 |
Related Quotations
| Page | Quote | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War | “There had already been a significant increase in violence by Israeli settlers this year, even before the Hamas attack, according to UN data, with more than 100 incidents reported each month and about 400 people driven from their land between January and August.
Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem told the BBC that since the attack, it had documented "a concerted and organised effort by settlers to use the fact that the entire international and local attention is focused on Gaza and the north of Israel to try to seize land in the West Bank". Partial data compiled by B'Tselem, covering the first six days after the Hamas attack, recorded at least 46 separate incidents in which it said settlers threatened, physically attacked or damaged the property of Palestinians in the West Bank. "A lot of shepherding families and communities have fled because they were threatened in the past week by settlers," said Roy Yellin, a spokesman for B'Tselem. "Settlers have been giving residents a deadline to leave and telling them if they don't they will be harmed. And some villages have been totally emptied out."” | BBC Joel Gunter | 2023 |
| 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War/October 7 | “Under no circumstances and at no stage was Prime Minister Netanyahu warned of war intentions on the part of Hamas. On the contrary, the assessment of the entire security echelon, including the head of military intelligence and the head of Shin Bet, was that Hamas was deterred and was seeking an arrangement".” | Benjamin Netanyahu | October 2023 |
| AIJAC/Rambam Programs/2015 | “Our exchange on strategic issues soon demonstrated a whole range of areas where our military forces [ IDF and the Australian military ] could learn from one another. These ranged from defence industry co-operation (our army has purchased an Israeli battle management system) to counter-insurgency, urban intelligence gathering, coalition warfighting, countering improvised explosive devices, military education, the use of reservists, airpower developments (both countries are acquiring F-35 joint strike fighters), military procurement processes and maritime security (Israel is developing offshore gas fields). Issues related to counter-terrorism and social resilience were highlighted as common interests of both states.” | Anthony Bergin | 2015 |
| George Carlin | “Smug, greedy, well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It's as simple as that. The CIA doesn't kill anybody anymore, they neutralize people, or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation. The Pentagon actually measures nuclear radiation in something they call sunshine units. Israeli murderers are called commandos, Arab commandos are called terrorists. Contra killers are called freedom fighters. Well, if crime fighters fight crime, and firefighters fight fires, what do freedom fighters fight?” | George Carlin | |
| Miko Peled | “[...] and then you've got the Israeli army which I like to refer to as one of the most, one of the best-trained, best-equipped, best fed, terrorist organizations in the world. And yes they have generals and have nice uniforms, but their entire, their entire purpose is terrorism. And just as one example, I'll give you one example, almost exactly four years ago as Israel began its attack on Gaza, September the 27th 2008 at 11:25 in the morning. What I refer to as the most shameful day in the Jewish history. The most shameful day in the history of the Jewish people. Israel began carpet bombing Gaza and on the first day of it what was to be a 21 day attack, they dropped 100 tons of bombs. OK, a one-ton bomb will decimate an entire city block. Gaza is one of the most densely populated places in the world. 800,000 children live in Gaza- 11:25 is exactly the time when the morning school shift and the afternoon school shift change, so all the kids are in the streets, all the children on the streets. That was the moment decided by the decision makers in Israel to begin the attack. This was the first day, of a 21 day slaughter that had absolutely no justification, if that's not terrorism I don't know what is [...]” | Miko Peled | 2012 |
| Ronald Plasterk | “All the more exasperating that in the reactions to Hamas's horrific pogrom, in which more Jews were murdered in one day than at any time since the Holocaust, first, it is pretended that it is indeed symmetrical, and the major media such as the NOS news even ostentatiously takes sides with Hamas and against Israel (see, for example, holding Israel directly responsible for that bomb on the hospital, without any check, and then no neat response).
You can have all sorts of objections to the Netanyahu government, and because Israel is a democracy (the only one in the Middle East) there are many people even within Israel who voice those objections. You can insist on observing borders when counterattacking. If you recognise Israel's full right to defend itself, there are always limits anyway; remember, for example, that Israel is a nuclear power. But even if you keep the balance right, it is important to have in mind why the situation between Israel and Hamas is anything but symmetrical. There are civilian casualties on both sides. A first fundamental difference is that Hamas, as a terror organisation, is out to inflict as many civilian casualties as possible, while the Israeli army is trying to hit Hamas while inflicting as few civilian casualties as possible. You might perhaps think that they should take even more of a margin on that point, but in any case the intention is a completely different one from Hamas’. A further difference is that Israeli soldiers may be willing to die in war, but still prefer to come home to their families in one piece. Hamas has a death culture, with the highest good being to blow yourself up, for which you are rewarded with sex with 72 young virgins (not wondering if those 72 young women feel like it). Then taking civilians hostage as human shields, including very young children. That is a serious war crime, and one would expect that all responses would constantly insist that Hamas must first release those hostages. On top of that, Hamas is also preventing its own civilians from leaving locations where Hamas posts are located, precisely with the intention of those civilians being killed in attacks from Israel. Another criminal tactic that Israel does not use.” | Ronald Plasterk | 2023 |
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Dear Mr Starmer, we fact-checked your 7 Oct statement. You’re welcome | blog post | 7 October 2024 | Editor | "Appalling mix of regurgitated and already-discredited lies with grotesque one-sidedness" |
| Document:Has the Elite’s Slavish pro-Israel Agenda Finally Gone Too Far | Blog post | 25 February 2019 | Craig Murray | Israeli destruction of Palestinian olive trees in the occupied territories is almost as heinous as the continuing killing and imprisonment of Palestinian children. Every morning ask yourself this question: "How many children has the Israeli “Defence” Force killed since the MSM last reported one?" |
| Document:Open Letter To The Judges Of The International Criminal Court | Letter | 7 October 2024 | Yanis Varoufakis Brian Eno | |
| Document:Spot-Shoot | article | 13 July 2010 | Jonathan Cook | On the use of drones against Palestinians |
| Document:US says Israel may have breached international law with American weapons in Gaza | commentary | 11 May 2024 | Jonathan Cook | "If that sounds like extreme linguistic, legal and moral gymnastics in defence of continuing US complicity in genocide, it's because that is exactly what it is." |
| File:Attack when the world is not watching.pdf | paper | 1 May 2015 | Ruben Durante Ekaterina Zhuravskaya | An analysis of the timing of Israeli military attacks on Gaza relative to important breaking news in the US and Europe |
| File:Children and Youth Soldiers Testimonies 2005 2011.pdf | testimony | 26 August 2012 | IDF veterans | |
| File:UN HRC Gaza Freedom Flotilla.pdf | report | 1 October 2010 | UN Human Rights Council | The report of the international fact-finding mission to investigate violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, resulting from the Israeli attacks on the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian assistance |
