Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the Israel Defense Forces, the combined military forces of Israel.
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Opinion Israel uses new surveillance technology to distance itself from the occupation. It’s not working
Up until a few months ago, Israeli Jews were convinced I was lying to them when I told them soldiers go into Palestinian homes to “map” the house and the people living in it. Every night, soldiers entered the homes of “uninvolved civilians” —meaning people who are suspected of nothing other than being Palestinian —not…
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News Israel says 1967 land conquests weren’t planned. Declassified documents tell a more complicated story.
For years, most Israeli historiography maintained that the country’s decision makers were taken by surprise by the fruits of the victory harvested with lightning speed in June 1967. “The war,” Defense Minister Moshe Dayan said, three days after its conclusion, “developed and rolled into fronts that were not intended and were not preplanned by anyone,…
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Opinion Editorial | Changing Israeli prime ministers is not enough
You don’t have to love Naftali Bennett or Yair Lapid to be happy about their agreement Wednesday to form a new Israeli government that ends the reign of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. You don’t have to agree with them about any key issue facing the Jewish state. You don’t have to trust them…
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Opinion Israel’s proposed coalition agreement offers a rare chance for optimism
Barring any unusual surprises, of which we have already had a great many, Israel will soon have a new government that few could have imagined a few weeks ago. The proposed coalition between Yair Lapid, a centrist, and Naftali Bennett, a man of the hard right, who will share the premiership through a rotation agreement,…
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Israel News Growing numbers of Yom Kippur War veterans are seeking PTSD treatment
The Israeli television series “Valley of Tears,” now available on HBO, tells the story of the Yom Kippur War from the perspective of Israelis who fought it, and it’s prompting a national conversation about one of the most devastating chapters in the country’s history – both among those too young to remember it and the…
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Fast Forward Israeli Woman Chases Down Man Who Flashed And Tried To Grab Her
(JTA) — An Israeli woman who lives in Massachusetts chased down and held a man who exposed himself to her while she was jogging. Single mother Aia Polansky, 33, was running in Cambridge when the male jogger dropped his pants to his knees as she ran by. Polansky, a 6-foot-1-inch-tall veteran of the Israel Defense…
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Fast Forward Some IDF Cadets Listen To Rabbis Over Commanders, Former Defense Minister Says
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Religious pre-military academies are creating “private militias” that listen to their rabbis over their military commanders, Avigdor Liberman charged. Liberman, head of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party and formerly defense minister, made the statement during an address at the annual Herzliya policy conference. “We can’t throw out the baby with the bathwater….
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News This Tiny Jewish School Builds Recruits For American, Israeli Militaries
At least one student from every graduating class at Carmel Academy has enlisted in the military. That wouldn’t be so remarkable if Carmel were a public school, or a large private school in an area with relatively high enlistment rates. But Carmel is a Jewish day school in Connecticut with 200 total graduates, 13 of…
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