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.
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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:Spot-Shoot | article | 13 July 2010 | Jonathan Cook | On the use of drones against Palestinians |
| 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 |
