Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the Israel Defense Forces, the combined military forces of Israel.
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Opinion New Year’s Greetings From the IDF Chief of Staff
Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, offers a 2-1/2 minute video new year’s greeting to “Jewish people in Israel and around the world.” Here’s the Hebrew version, in which he says mostly the same things but sounds a lot better, if you can follow it. He’s got a nice…
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The Schmooze Orthodox IDF Men Boycott Women Singing
Where are the limits to Israeli multiculturalism? This is the question that the Israeli military woke up to today, after a seminar focused on the Gaza War last night turned controversial. Cadets who will soon become officers were seated in the audience at the event, when two female soldiers got up to sing. Orthodox Jewish…
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The Schmooze ‘Israel’s Best Friend’ Dogs Trained To Attack
Just as we are getting word that the IDF is training West Bank Settlers to handle possible confrontations with Palestinians following the expected vote in the U.N. General Assembly in favor of Palestinian statehood, a rather disturbing video has surfaced about another defense force, the IBF. IBF stands for Israel’s Best Friend, a non-profit organization…
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The Schmooze Female IDF Soldiers Suffer More Stress Fractures
A study of women soldiers in Israel has found that for the IDF to attract more women to combat roles, it is going to have to make changes to more than just the design of military gear. The IDF thought that it had eliminated the problem of women soldiers getting stress fractures by designing a…
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The Schmooze Majority of Israeli 18-Year-Olds Not Drafted Into Army
It is common knowledge that all 18-year-old Israeli males serve in the Israel Defense Forces for three years, and all females for two years. Only that common knowledge is wrong. Israel’s Channel 2 News reports that in an interview with Israel Defense magazine, the IDF’s top human resources commander, Brigadier General Amir Rogovsky, said that…
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Opinion Demography as Destiny: Israel’s Growing Right Shapes Law, Military
The increasingly progressive Atlantic Monthly correspondent and former Forward staffer Jeffrey Goldberg (for the last time, no, we’re not the same person) posted a link on his blog Tuesday to an online essay — which he called “hard to disagree with” — by senior research fellow Hussein Ibish of the American Task Force on Palestine….
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The Schmooze IDF Gets Text Savvy for Emergency Situations
Things not gr8. Go 2 shelters. Yes, it’s the Middle East SMS-style. The Israel Defense Forces has just started testing a new text message process for communicating emergency instructions to civilians. Citizens across Southern Israel have been receiving trial texts. It’s a big step forward in emergency preparedness — especially given that Israelis are so…
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The Schmooze Rabbi and Father of 11 on Trial for Molesting IDF Officer
Editor’s Note: Yesterday Bidany was found guilty of the charge of molesting a female Israeli Army officer. A female IDF officer is not taking an alleged case of misdemeanor sexual contact sitting down — especially not while sitting on an airplane. The NY Daily News reported that the 23-year-old officer, who commands a missile defense…
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