Israel Defense Forces

The Israel Defence Forces (Hebrew: צבא הגנה לישראל Tsva Haganah Le-Israel, often abbreviated צה"ל Tsahal) is the name of Israel's armed forces (army, air force and navy). It was formed following the founding of Israel in 1948 to "defend the existence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state of Israel" and "to protect the inhabitants of Israel and to combat all forms of terrorism which threaten the daily life". The predecessors to the IDF were the Haganah (in particular, its operative detachmen, the Palmach) and the British armed forces, in particular the Jewish Brigade that fought during World War II.

After the establishment of the IDF, it eventually incorporated some personnel and equipment from the Irgun, and to some extent the Stern gang militias which operated during the British rule over the mandate of Palestine.

Current Status

The IDFs fall under the command of a single general staff. The current head of staff is Major-general (Rav-Aluf) Moshe (Boogie) Ya'alon, responsible to the Minister of Defence.

Service is mandatory for Jewish men and women over the age of 18, although exemptions may be made on religious grounds. The fact that an increasing number of people in the ultraorthodox community are exempt, has been a source of tension in Israeli society. Druze, members of a small Islamic sect living in Israel's mountains, also serve in the IDF. In recent years, some Druze officers have reached positions in the IDF as high as Major General. Israeli Arabs, with few exceptions, are not obliged to serve, though they may volunteer.

Six Israeli Arabs have received orders of distinction as a part of their military service; of them the most famous is a Bedouin officer, Lieutenant Colonel Abd El-Amin Hajer (also known as Amos Yarkoni), that has received the Order of Example. Recently, a Bedouin officer was promoted to the rank of Colonel.

Men serve three years in the IDF, as do the women in combat positions, while women in non-combat positions serve two. The IDF requires women who volunteer for combat positions to serve for three years because combat soldiers must go through a lengthy period of training, and the IDF wants to get as much use of that training as possible. In addition, men serve up to one month annually of reserve service, up to the age of 43-45. No direct social benefits are tied to completion of military service, but doing it is required for attaining a security clearance and serving in some types of government positions (in most cases, security-related); Israeli Arabs claim, however, that this puts them at a disadvantage.

During 1950-66, Israel spent an average of 9% of its GDP on defense. Defense expenditures increased dramatically after both the 1967 and 1973 wars. In 1996, the military budget reached 10.6% of GDP and represented about 21.5% of the total 1996 budget.

In 1983, the United States and Israel established the Joint Political Military Group, which meets twice a year. Both the U.S. and Israel participate in joint military planning and combined exercises, and have collaborated on military research and weapons development.

Military branches:

• IDF
  • Ground
    • Infantry
    • Armour
    • Artillary
    • Combat Engineering
  • Air
  • Navy
  • Support
    • Logistic
    • Ordnance & Maintainence
    • Medical Corps
  • Military Intelligence
• Frontier Guard - MAGAV (This is in fact a police unit. However, serving in the FG is the same as serving in the IDF, in terms of completing the mandatory term of service).
• Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age
• Military expenditures - dollar figure: $8.7 billion (FY99)
• Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 9.4% (FY99)

The IDF's human assets (estimate, source: CIA World Factbook 2000)

Military manpower - Category	Males	Females
Availability (age 15-49)	1,499,186	1,462,063
Fit for military service (age 15-49)	1,226,903	1,192,319
Reaching military age (18) annually	50,348	47,996

Nuclear capability?

Most analysts hold it that Israel is the only nuclear power in the middle east. The Israeli government has neither acknowledged nor denied that it possesses nuclear weapons, an official policy referred to as "ambiguity".

Gathering information from various sources, it is generally believed that nuclear weapons have been developed at the Dimona nuclear reactor since the 1960s.

Very little can be said with certainty beyond this. The Federation of American Scientists (see references) claims that the first two nuclear bombs probably were operational before the Six-Day War. It is widely reported that Prime Minister Eshkol ordered them armed in Israel's first nuclear alert during that war. It is also reported that, fearing defeat in the October 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israelis assembled 13 twenty-kiloton nuclear bombs. Naturally, it is next to impossible to confirm this information.

The current size and composition of Israel's nuclear stockpile is uncertain, and is the subject of various estimates and reports. FAS estimates that Israel probably has 100-200 nuclear warheads, which can be delivered by airplanes (A4 Skyhawk or converted F-4 Phantom II), or ballistic missiles (Lance, Jericho, or Jericho II missiles). The Jericho II is reported to have a range between 1,500 and 4,000 kms, meaning that it can target sites as far away as central Russia.

Recent policies

The IDF uses sophisticated technology, and due to their long experience fighting Palestinian guerrillas, have developed methods of crowd control and use of non-lethal force, in particular in scenarios when armed clashes occur in the presence of unarmed crowds. Some, however, criticise the IDF's methods, as there were numerous cases in which unarmed civilians have died during clashes.

Some of the unarmed civillians, however, found themselves in the line of fire after travelling thousands of miles from other countries. Often they had entered Israel as tourists, but the hidden agenda was obstructing IDF activity, on the grounds that the IDF's actions are "immoral" and harmful to the Palestinian population.

For example, Rachel Corrie was killed during a clash between about ten unarmed International Solidarity Movement activists and two Israeli bulldozers and a tank. The official IDF investigation concluded that Ms. Corrie's death was an accident, as she was crushed by rubble and hidden from the drivers eyes. This conclusion is hotly contested by the other ISM members who were present. Many interest groups have used her death in order to denounce the IDF's moral standards in the international media.

Israel targets and detains individuals to avert future terrorist acts. In addition, Israel employs a strategy of targeted killings (called assassinations by critics).

It should be noted that the question of assassinations is considered by some a gray area in international relations. Although up until recently, most developed nations, including the U.S., did not consider the assassination of political leaders legitimate, this was never the case with military objectives. Recently, the U.S. has assassinated numerous Al-Qaeda operatives as well as tried to assassinate Mullah Omar via missile-armed remote-controlled drones, and other nations have carried out what they deem to be otherwise valid military action in areas that were also intended to impact those individuals.

In the Second Intifada, Israel's official "most wanted" list has become the list of likely targets in the future. In the majority of cases, Israel manages to arrest the wanted individuals and even prefers the method of arrest, since it leads to intelligence not otherwise obtained.

In an interview with the BBC (linked below), Giora Eiland, the chief of Military Planning department of the IDF General Staff defined four criteria necessary for carrying out a targeted killing:

1. There's no way to arrest the particular individual
2. The target is important enough
3. The assassination can be carried out with minimal civilian casualties
4. The operation cannot be delayed - meaning the target is a "ticking bomb", ready to execute an attack

If the criteria are met, the target can be killed by various methods, including sniper fire, explosive devices, helicopter-launched rockets or aerial bombs. By using this method, according to Israeli spokepeople, Israel hopes to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties while preventing severe attacks from being carried out.

The method remains highly controversial however, inside as well as outside Israel, also because of the risk of hurting non-combatant civilians in the process. Many reject its legitimacy outright, while supporters say there is no viable alternative. It is seen and accepted by the majority of Israeli public only as a measure of last resort, facing the Palestinian Authority's perceived complicity, in the very least by non-prevention.

Refusal to Serve

Although small numbers of IDF soldiers refused to serve in Lebanon and during the first intifada, the Al-Aksa intifada has seen the phenomenon growing to the extent that it has become a major public controversy. The refusers (known as seruvniks after the Hebrew word for refusal) are not strictly conscientious objectors, since they don't refuse military service in general but only refuse to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A public letter of refusal issued in January 2002 had by September 2003 been signed by 550 active or reserve soldiers. The letter promises to "continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel's defense" but refuses to "continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people".

Though lauded as heros by many, the seruvniks have been condemned by all the major Israeli political parties. Air-force chief Halutz called refusal "the mother of all dangers to our people". Some of the seruvniks have been prosecuted and spent time in prison but others have been quietly transferred to alternative duties.

On September 25, 2003, a similar declaration of refusal to serve was made by 27 air-force pilots including 9 active pilots, only 2 were involved in aerial attacks in the territories. The refusers' petition was widely condemnd by the other IAF pilots.

See also: Arab-Israeli conflict, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Terrorism against Israel, Terrorism against Arabs, USS Liberty, Nuclear proliferation

Further reference

• IDF's home page
• The IDF Spirit - the ethical code of the IDF
• The Sword and the Olive, Martin Van Creveld, ISBN 1-891620-05-3. A thorough and critical history of the IDF from the early defence leagues, and up to the late 1990s.
• FAS's page about Israel's alleged nuclear capability
• BBC: Israel undercover
• Home page of IDF soldiers who refuse to serve