Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the Israel Defense Forces, the combined military forces of Israel.
IDF
The Latest
-
News Why Trump’s Blowup With Slain Soldier’s Family Could Never Happen In Israel
Stories about President Trump’s interactions with the families of soldiers killed in military service dominated the news this week, including especially his lie that previous presidents like Barack Obama didn’t call such families, and his remark to a grieving widow that her husband “knew what he signed up for.” In Israel, mourning military families simply…
-
Fast Forward WATCH: Female Israeli Soldier Uses Krav Maga To Fend Off Horde Of Hasidic Jews
A female IDF solider was forced to use karate to fend off a swarm of Hasidic Jews protesting the compulsory military draft in Jerusalem Monday, the Washington Post reported. Nomi Golan, who was off duty at the time, was attempting to guide a car through the raucous protests. “They attacked me, so as a soldier,…
-
Fast Forward Israel Caught Russia Cyber-Snooping For U.S. Secrets
Israeli intelligence caught Russian spies attempting hack out classified American documents in computers across the globe, the New York Times reported. The Russians used a widely used antivirus program to effectively search millions of computers for documents from the FBI, the NSA, the CIA and other branches of government. The antivirus program is made by…
-
Fast Forward 2 Israeli Soldiers Killed In Training Accident
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Two Israeli soldiers were killed in a training accident in the Golan Heights. A self-propelled cannon overturned into a ditch during a military exercise early Wednesday morning, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Along with the two fatalities, two soldiers were seriously injured with internal and orthopedic injuries and two others were…
-
Fast Forward U.S. Opens First Military Base In Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The United States opened its first official military base on Israeli soil. The base started operating Monday following a ceremony at the end of last week to inaugurate the facility that included Israeli and American military personnel. It will operate independently from within an Israeli military base in southern Israel that houses an…
-
Fast Forward Ultra-Orthodox Jews Clash With Police In Protest Against IDF Conscription
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hundreds of Haredi Orthodox protesters demonstrated in Jerusalem against conscription in the Israel Defense Forces. The protesters clashed with police on Sunday during the demonstrations in the Haredi neighborhood of Mea Shearim, leading to the arrest of at least 8 protesters. At least two teenage protesters were injured in the melee, Ynet…
-
Fast Forward Mitchell Flint, U.S. Pilot Who Helped Create Israeli Air Force, Dies At 94
(JTA) — Mitchell Flint, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot who helped create the Israeli Air Force in 1948, has died. Flint died on Saturday in Los Angeles at the age of 94. Flint served in Israel’s first fighter squadron, as one of the founding members of Machal, a group of non-Israelis who fought in…
-
Community How Israeli Culture Killed The Mensch
“Be a mensch,” a person of integrity, is a phrase one will likely hear frequently growing up Jewish in the United States. Striving for moral goodness is a quintessential feature of Judaism in America. Israeli Jews live by a completely different dictum: “don’t be a freier” — a sucker. A freier is easily exploited, something…
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Why saying ‘L’shana Tova’ on Rosh Hashanah may not be the correct phrase
- 2
Culture A Jewish prophet of the 1980s would be horrified to see that we didn’t heed his warnings
- 3
Opinion This is the most disorienting Rosh Hashanah in memory
- 4
Fast Forward Meet Lev Kreitman, who brought down Tel Aviv shooter and survived Nova music festival on Oct. 7
In Case You Missed It
-
Oct. 7: One Year Later On the eve of this grim anniversary, what we can — and cannot — control
-
Fast Forward Antisemitism hits record high in the U.S.; new report shows most-ever incidents in single year
-
Culture He founded the Harlem Globetrotters and is the shortest man in the basketball hall of fame. A new book tells his story.
-
Oct. 7: One Year Later One year after Oct. 7, a Yom Kippur ritual of communal mourning takes on fresh meaning
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism