Tzahal!

This is coolbert:

The country of Israel has exerted an influence in the modern world wide military community way out of proportion to other militaries around the world.

With only a few million people in the whole country, for a period of over fifty years now, the Israeli military has been a test vehicle for weaponry, concepts, ideas, strategies, tactics, etc. This is only reasonable because Israel has been in a state of war [five conventional wars and three insurgencies] during this entire period. With only small periods of peace, and then not really peace as normally understood, Israel has produced a very efficient military with very outstanding world class, innovative leadership.

And this emergence of Israel as a world class military power was out of necessity. The birth of the state of Israel in 1948 and it's establishment as a sovereign power was only due to military action. And from the onset, Israel had to contend with much larger foes, population wise, and in more recent years, with the Gulf states being seen as contributors to the general Arab cause, foes that were wealthier too. And Israel, without a clear cut conscious effort on it's part, became a major player in the Cold War, as a target of Soviet machinations.

To over come obvious deficits, Israel just had to be better at whatever it did. This of course included the military. And to do this they had to have superior man power equipped with superior weaponry, and led by superior officers using superior strategy and tactics to overcome the deficits they faced. And this they have done. The conventional wars fought with the Arab powers in 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982 were decisive victories on the battlefield for the Israeli. And the three intifadas [uprising in Arabic] of the Palestinians have given the Israeli a lot of experience in the counter-insurgency area too.

It is in the area of command and leadership that the Israeli enjoy a large lead over their Arab counterparts. The Israeli officer corps and Generals in particular are just better at command. Especially in possessing initiative and leadership that inspires their men to greater effort [this the original cadre of officers learned from Orde Wingate, mentioned in a previous blog]. The military analyst and historian De Puy says that analysis from the 1973 war showed that one Israeli soldier on the battlefield is worth two Arab soldiers. Just from the way they organize, are led, execute their tasks with skill, etc. This gives the Israeli a big advantage over the Arab.

With regard to weaponry, the Israeli for the most part utilized western sources of weapons.

The French AMX tank series, the British Centurion, and the U.S. M-60 line of tank have all been used with great success by Israeli tankers. And not only used, but improved upon in very innovative ways by the inventive Israeli ordnance department. The Israeli takes a basic weapon system, studies it, and makes modifications and improvements and sometimes comes up with a radically better system that the original inventors proposed.

The many wars fought between the Israeli and Arabs [armed primarily with Soviet weapons], allowed for the western powers to properly evaluate how well their weapons worked against the weapons of their most dangerous potential enemy, the Soviets. In this regard, the Israeli concluded that western weapon systems held a slight qualitative edge over Soviet weapons.

Israeli success in using these weapons of the west was primarily due to their innovative tactical applications and initiative of Israeli soldiers in using western weapons. It is worth mentioning with regard to weaponry that Israel is believed to have hundreds of deliverable nuclear warheads at their disposal, a number and sophistication matched perhaps only by the Russians and Americans!?!?

As was mentioned previously, the Israeli Generals had to be innovative as well in formulating strategy and tactics that were applicable to modern warfare.

This was done with careful thought and also with a very good dose of practical experience thrown in. Knowing what worked and what did not from actual warfare was a big advantage the Israeli had over say their NATO counterparts.

It was because of this that the Israelis were always invited to NATO conferences where strategy and tactics were discussed. The man that represented Israel at many of these conferences was Israel Beer. A man mentioned in the previous blog about circumcision. Now, Beer was found out to be a Soviet agent much after the fact. And it was often remarked that when Beer attended these NATO conferences, people used to say that Beer was the one person that asked the most penetrating questions and possessed the most provocative insights into strategy and tactics. Well, it is most likely that Beer, being as trusted as he was by NATO representatives, had been coached in advance by the Soviets to ask those specific questions, as to see what the answers would be!

Israeli military advisors have been highly sought after around the world for many decades now. Having the experience that they do, they are felt to be the best at what they do. Two reasons why the Israeli is so highly regarded. One is that they are proven winners. And the second is that they are very ruthless. Tell people what they need to do to win and do not mince words or play games. This attitude is liked by many authoritarian militaries in the developing world, who face a variety of problems all at once as to do the Israeli.

Israel is a formidable military power and will be so for some time into the future. The will to survive is highly developed among the Israeli and they will a force to be reckoned with for a long time into the future.

coolbert.