[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DAtANK_4847.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:The Merkava Mk.4. CoolTank and AwesomePersonnelCarrier rolled into one. And yes, it can shoot missiles too.]]
->"I'll say one thing about Israelis. Don't cross them"
-->Rachel Menken, ''Series/MadMen''

צבא הגנה לישראל ''Tzva [=HaHaganah LeYisra'el=]'',[[note]]Literally, "The Defense Army for Israel"[[/note]] known in English as the Israel Defense Forces, or ''Tzahal'' (from its Hebrew acronym) to its friends. Formed in 1948 from the various LaResistance factions of the time, involved in at least one war per decade, usually against numerically superior Arab forces, all won or tied, except for the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, which it debatably lost. In terms of flying skills (as measured in tactical exercises vs American and {{NATO}} forces) the IDF has some of the best pilots in the world. This is also evidenced by their very good record against Arab aircraft, even if said aircraft are downgraded export versions of Soviet stuff- look up "Bekaa Valley turkey shoot" for an idea. (even though Israel is partly able to make up for it with superior mobilization, this can be considered a real life example of ConservationOfNinjutsu). As a result, if you're looking for an AcePilot post WWII, Israel (or Pakistan) should be the first place you check.

The State of Israel uses universal conscription of both sexes. This has resulted in the IDF gaining a reputation for hot [[TheSquadette female soldiers]].

Israel's principal military supplier until the early 1960s was France. The United States became Israel's major supplier after the Six Day War and remains so until the present day. However, over the decades Israel has developed its own defense industry, developing, among others, a number of local aircraft, an indigenously developed series of [[TankGoodness main battle tanks]] and [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APCs]], several types of missile boats, various firearms, rocket and missile systems, combat related robots, electronic warfare systems and a wide range of [[AttackDrone UAVs]]. Despite this, what most people would probably say when asked what weapon was made in Israel, would probably be [[NeverLiveItDown "the Uzi"]].

Israel was also the first export customer for the F-15 Eagle and first to use it, as well as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, in combat. The Israeli air force is still responsible for over half the air to air kills for both fighters to this day.

Israel has nuclear weapons (created during the time Israel collaborated with the French, with mutual assistance regarding nuclear programs) but official sources will neither confirm nor deny such weapons existence when asked. Even then, France eventually did impose an embargo against Israel, at which point the Israelis turned to South Africa (during the Apartheid era, 'mind you) to complete the project, jointly developing their nuclear arsenal with South African collaboration. Politics indeed ''do'' make for strange bedfellows. South Africa eventually dismantled their nuclear arsenal, becoming the first, and thus far ''only'' nation to voluntarily exit the Nuclear Club. Israel...''didn't''. Any speculation you may hear about quality and quantity of such weapons is likely just that - speculation, although Israeli officials have on several occasions openly admitted to it before retracting the statement. But the fact that Israel has at least one nuclear weapon in its arsenal, if not more, is sometimes called "the [[OpenSecret worst-kept secret]] in the Middle East". According to historians and biographers of Israeli figureheads, this is completely intentional--the nuclear arsenal's purpose is to deter, not to be used.

Due to Israel's universal conscription, it is often assumed that all Israeli adults have military training, and are therefore combat capable. This is not entirely true, as Arabs (but not Druze or Circassians) are exempt from conscription, and previously so were ultra-Orthodox Jews (their exemption is in the process of being phased out due to Israeli courts ruling it unconstitutional), and usually do not serve. Also a non-negligible percentage of the population that does need to serve avoids it anyway. So not all Israelis have military training... just most of them. It's also important to note that most of the IDF's personnel are non-combat soldiers that have only a very basic combat training.

Related to this is the Israeli intelligence service. The Mossad (the Israeli counterpart to the CIA) is infamous for carrying out assassinations, as well as being very good at their job in general.

PS - "IDF" is the English translation. If you're ever in the area, you might refer to the Israeli army as "Tzahal" (the short version of the Hebrew name, ''[=Tzva HaHaganah LeYisra'el=]'', literally "Defense Army for Israel",צה"ל, צבא הגנה לישראל).

See also: ArabIsraeliConflict.

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!!Tropes include:

* [[AttackAttackAttack Attack! Attack! Attack!]]: This actually worked, albeit haphazardly, until 1973.
* AwesomePersonnelCarrier: The Merkava is this and a CoolTank at the same time.
* BadassArmy
* BadassIsraeli: The IDF is naturally a noted hangout of these.
* BerserkButton: Aqaba was this during the Six-day War.
* CatchPhrase: Several, some officially supported by IDF culture and some unofficial truisms emergent from the lower ranks:
** "These orders were written in blood." (tagline of many a list of safety guidelines)
** "Results - not excuses."
** "Difficult training - easy battle."
** "That's all we have, that's what we'll win with."
** "Painted is new; wet is clean; piled-up is neat; bureks are festive." (ironic paraphrase of the famous edict from NineteenEightyFour; the closest analogue in English is probably "To Seem, Rather Than To Be". Lampoons the dogmatic culture of bureaucratic appearances, and concurrent lack of focus on substance to go with it, endemic to the IDF when it's dealing with matters not immediately relevant to its ability to shoot at enemies.)
** "If it moves, salute it. If it doesn't move, pick it up. If you can't pick it up, paint it white."
** "I was born crying; When I was drafted, I realized why."
** "The man in the tank will win" (armored corps)
** "When you see a sniper, don't run - you'll die tired".
** "If I don't get to fly, NO ONE gets to fly." (unofficial motto of the anti-aircraft unit, allegedly full of would-be pilots who dropped out)
* CoolPlane: One of the best airforces in the world. And it's not just because they have cool planes. Check out the story of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-15_Eagle#Notable_accidents_and_incidents Zivi]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LveSc8Lp0ZE Nedivi]].
* CoolTank: Israelis love these.
* {{Conscription}}: This allows Israel to punch [[PintSizedPowerhouse above its weight]] in numbers. However keeping a lot of people under arms permanently can hurt the economy.
** The conscription is actually believed to help the Israeli economy quite a bit. Its mostly a matter of mental state--there is no shortage of ex-officers with leadership experience, and the military encouraged attitude of taking the initiative. Doing the likes of say, forming a business plan, doesn't seem all that daunting a task for someone who's trained to plan for and keep his head in a life and death situation as part of his job description.
*** The keywords here are "believed" and "seem", as many Israelis whose bosses are former army officers, will testify. Military officers usually need to retrain extensively to function as civilian managers -- probably something to do with employees needing to be asked instead of told.
* CrowningMomentOfAwesome
** Here's four. The first: during the Six Day War, the Israelis launched a sneak attack which destroyed almost the entire Egyptian Air Force while it was ''still on the ground''. On the first day Israel destroyed the Egyptian airforce. On the next five they kicked ass with full air support. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic On the seventh day they rested.]]
** The second: Rallying from near-complete military deactivation on the holiest day of the year to repel an invasion during the Yom Kippur War. The fact that Jews are not supposed to use the telephone or drive on such holidays meant clear communication lines to alert the troops and empty roads for them to race to their posts really helped move things along.
** The third: The Raid on Entebbe. If you've ever seen the movie with Charles Bronson, you might think it's over-dramatic. It's not: the raid was that insanely awesome.
** The fourth: in 1981, the Israeli intelligence heard that [[BigBad Saddam Hussein]] was developing a nuclear program. So they sent a squadron of planes to fly over to Iraq - over 600 miles away - and blow it up. And it worked - the nuclear program was delayed by at least 20 years, and when the American troops came to finish the job in Desert Storm, they found out that "the Israelis did most of our work for us".
** Better make that five, the very first war the Israelis fought was the 1948 war with the Arabs, and that was the same day it was declared a state. The Israelis fought and repulsed all 10 Arab States that attacked it, marking the beginning of this trope.
* CrowningMomentOfFunny: Several soldiers on patrol being hit with a surprise attack of KeSha music... [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVVte550dyU#t=0m44s and dancing to it]].
* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: After the Battle of Ismailia in the 1973 war and the announcement of the armistice, the Israelis got to know the [[EgyptiansWithEagleFighters Egyptian commandos]] they had been fighting. Soon, the Egyptians and Israelis would meet daily, drinking coffee, playing backgammon and soccer, [[NotSoDifferent getting to personally know each other]].
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The Israeli national anthem, ''Hatikvah'', which means "the hope".
** YMMV on this, as some Israelis are upset that we have the most depressing national anthem in the world. Where most nations have something uplifting and patriotic, Hatikvah is a big TearJerker with a BittersweetEnding.
*** Funny, that was what I ''liked'' about it. It felt like an anti-jingoistic patriotism in which people could love their country while not forgetting that WarIsHell.
* CurbStompBattle: The IDF has a history of handing these out to the Arabs. The Six-Day War is one of the most one-sided wars in history. For six days, the Israelis beat the crap out of the Arabs. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic And on the seventh day they rested]].
* DisproportionateRetribution: Attack Israeli targets, and Mossad's kidon unit will hunt you down and kill you [[RefugeInAudacity anywhere on earth.]]
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Yoni Netanyahu at Entebbe.
* DeterminedHomesteader: Kibbutzim
* EagleSquadron: The Jewish Brigade in WorldWarII serving in the British Army (this only partially counts as Britain was their FeudalOverlord at the time. But it was recruited in that spirit.). Also a number of foreigners during the '48 war.
* EliteArmy: They certainly seem like one, given the incredibly lopsided casualty ratios of the conflicts they get involved in.
* EnemyMine: They had a briefly cooperated with Iran during the IranIraqWar, providing military advisers, money, and weapons, as well as bombing an Iraqi nuclear reactor during [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Opera Operation Opera]], mostly because they really hated SaddamHussein. This was in contrast to their ally the United States, who regarded Iran as the bigger threat.
* EyepatchOfPower: Moshe Dayan
* FatalFlaw: Due to Israel being small, the IDF was, for a great period of time, [[AttackAttackAttack infallibly aggressive]]. This has historically been at the cost of:
** [[BoringButPractical Logistics]], leading to the near-failure of the Sinai counter-offensive in the Six-Day War due to almost all the Israeli tanks running out of fuel.
** [[AttackAttackAttack Common Sense]], which led to half the Israeli armored force dashing itself to shreds against Egyptian anti-tank defenses in October of 1973 before Ariel Sharon wised up.
* FauxActionGirl: The great majority of female soldiers in the IDF, who serve in non-combat divisions.
* FightingForAHomeland
* FeudalOverlord: TheBritishEmpire. Israel was a working nation long before official independence. This is one reason it survived the '48 war. However it was officially a dependent on TheBritishEmpire.
* ImprovisedWeapon: The Haganah used to make bullets out of lipstick tubes.
** Actually, they created bullets in secret and pretending that they were lipstick tubes. The real thing wouldn't make a very good bullet. They also hid weapons inside of milk cans and explosives in gas tanks of trucks to hide them from the Brits.
* InitiationCeremony: For most units, basic training concludes with a long march to a historically or otherwise significant site (depending on the unit, usually Masada or the Western Wall) to be sworn into the IDF and receive their corps berets.
* {{Irony}}: Due to their almost single-minded emphasis on individual initiative, rapid victories, and maneuver warfare, the IDF best resembles the operational doctrine of the [[UsefulNotes/NazisWithGnarlyWeapons Wehrmacht]].
** For an additional layer, IDF infantry were originally armed largely with surplus weapons seized from Nazi stockpiles. They acquired weapons from absolutely anywhere they could find them, and there was was no larger source of weapons in the world than the now-disbanded Wehrmacht's stockpiles. Some even still had swastika designs engraved or enamelled on (the first thing IDF men did was scratch them out with rocks)
*** The first ever fighter aircraft acquired by Israel? The Messerschmitt Bf109.
* MemeticMutation: When a squad of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVVte550dyU IDF soldiers broke out into Kesha Dance]] in Hebron.
* MightyGlacier: The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDF_Caterpillar_D9 armored D9 bulldozer]] is a 65-ton behemoth that will slowly but surely raze anything to the ground, and can endure attacks that would destroy most other vehicles.
* TheMigration
* MildlyMilitary: Ironically for a force so reputed, the IDF has historically been lax on discipline, even touting it as something that lesser armies need. This has, on occasion, bitten the IDF in the ass.
** In particular, the Golani Brigade is known for both its fighting prowess and its discipline problems.
* TheNotSecret: The aforementioned nuclear weapons.
* OneManArmy: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zvika_Greengold Zvika Greengold]].
* PeaceThroughSuperiorFirepower: The goal of the IDF.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: Israel has a smaller territory and population then several states in the area, and it is probably the most feared.
** In this case, "smaller territory" works out to "about 200 miles long, and about one third of that at its widest."
* ProudWarriorRace: This actually goes all the way back to the ancient Hebrews, who were renowned as warriors.
* RealMenLoveJesus: Orde Wingate, an [[GoingNative English officer]] who trained militiamen to pursue Arab raiders in the night. If you ask [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orde_Wingate Wikipedia]] though, they would tell you he was an AxCrazy ChurchMilitant.
* RefugeInAudacity: The IDF has, I shit you not, designed a gun which consists of a rifle with a stuffed cat on the end of it. The entire purpose is to cause the enemy to hesitate in firing at a "cat", thus giving the Israeli time to get a few shots of their own in.
** Like most similarly [[AwesomeButImpractical crazy/idiotic ideas devised by armies through history]], it (sadly?) didn't see much use in actual combat, ever.
* TheScrounger: On one notable occasion, one Haganah agent was negotiating with a Czech ArmsDealer. To get the money needed he had to collect it from private contributions, doing things like walking into the local Jewish quarter and drumming up money.
* StormingTheCastle: Entebbe
** The attack on the fortified Old City of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War.
* TookALevelInBadass: Twice. Once when the Haganah learned to hunt down Arab guerrillas during the Arab revolt against the British (One British writer said: "They discovered that they were soldiers."). And in the Six-Day War when they surprised everyone by how much they had changed from the [[MildlyMilitary Militia]] they once were.
* TrainingThePeacefulVillagers: The British Officer Orde Wingate did this for the Haganah militia. Including a 20-year-old Ruth Westheimer, trained as a sniper and wounded in the '48 war. "Pint-Sized Powerhouse", indeed.
* TriggerHappy: Understandably so - they are surrounded on all sides by nations that are not only hostile but want to end Israel's existence. Then there are the Palestinian terrorists, who operate from urban areas.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Many of the Arabs during the '48 thought they were going to a pogrom not a war. The [[WarriorsOfTheDesertWind Jordanians]] who lived next to them knew differently.
* WorthyOpponent: The [[WarriorsOfTheDesertWind Jordanian Arab Legion]], the only Arab military that consistently held its own against the IDF. The West Bank would probably still be Jordanian if the IAF hadn't destroyed almost the entire Royal Jordanian Air Force in the first day of the Six-Day War, granting the IDF the advantage of air support.
** Sadat's Egyptian army which reversed some Israeli gains from the Six-Day War. To those few who paid attention, [[SubvertedTrope this isn't quite so]]; Sadat's army bloodied Israel's elite tank units badly, but by the end of combat (enforced by [[ColdWar the U.S. and U.S.S.R. not wanting to ruin detente over Israel]]), the Egyptians were either encircled or on the run.
** [[NGOSuperPower Hezbollah]] managed to survive the 2006 Lebanon War, due in large part to its [[EliteMooks well-trained paramilitaries]] and [[MacrossMissileMassacre massive arsenal of rockets]].
* YouShallNotPass: The Seventh Armored Brigade on the Golan Heights in the Yom Kippur War. In particular, one guy - [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zvika_Greengold Zvika Greengold]].
* YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry: Being an IronWoobie for 2000 years does get rather tiresome.

'''The IDF in fiction'''
* Herman Wouk's novels ''The Hope'' and ''The Glory''
* ''Mirage'' by James Follett, a spy thriller detailing exactly * how* the Israelis managed to get the Mirage aircraft from the French.
* ''{{Spooks}}'' [[spoiler: Accidentally kills about 70 kids in a Gaza school]]
* ''Eagle in the Sky''- A WilburSmith novel that features a South African join the IDF, then get thrown out after chasing Syrian fighters into Syria, losing his wingman and getting disfigured in the process.
* ''Film/IndependenceDay'' - In an interesting example of... optimism... Israeli and Syrian pilots hide aircraft in the Golan heights and launch a combined attack on the alien fleet after the American example.
* ''Operation Yonatan''
* ''TheZombieSurvivalGuide'': An Israeli paratrooper platoon stops a zombie outbreak in an Egyptian village in the 70's. Trading zombies as biological weapons leads to the Egypt-Israel detente.
** WorldWarZ, from the same Verse; the IDF ends up enforcing a voluntary quarantine of the country after the Outbreaks begin, and has to fight a civil war with the ultra-orthodox as a result of this and other security and practical measures.
* ''Yossi & Jagger''
* ''WaltzWithBashir'' is a complete deconstruction of this trope.
* ''YTheLastMan'': being the only people in the region to employ female soldiers puts Israel in a strong position when all the men die. IDF leader Alter becomes a major antagonist in the series.
* ''Tom Clancy's Endwar'': Israel is officially neutral in World War III, but very, very quietly aids and supports the European Federation.
* Creator/TomClancy's ''Literature/TheSumOfAllFears'' opens during the Yom Kippur War, where a nuclear armed IDF aircraft is lost in action, providing the MacGuffin for the plot. In modern times, as part of the peace agreement the US Army's 11th Cavalry is stationed in Israel, and as part of their training plays wargames against the IDF.
* While not precisely a member of the IDF, Earth Force Colonel Ari Ben-Zayn (a one-shot character) from ''Series/BabylonFive'' plays on all the tropes about the suspicion and toughness of Israeli soldiers--and has a massive scar to show for it. Ben-Zayn loosely translates to "Son of a Gun", and is also slang for [[spoiler:dick]], so that makes it a BilingualBonus with several layers.
* YouDontMessWithTheZohan parodies this trope to no end with Zohan (Not an Israeli name) Dvir (An Israeli name), a supersoldier who can do push ups with no hands, kick two people at the same time, leap over walls, run on ceilings, and feel no pain from a piranha in the swim-suit. He has a Palestinian equivalent called the Fantom, too.
* The IDF is a playable faction in the ''[[VideoGame/{{Battlefield}} Battlefield 2]]'' mod ''ProjectReality''.
* The "all Israelis have military training" is invoked in ''Vortex'' by Larry Bond. In order to take out South Africa's nuclear arsenal, the US military enlists the aid of an Israeli professor who helped the South Africans develop said arsenal. The original plan called for the professor to train the American commandos in disarming nuclear warheads. When developments force the op to launch ahead of schedule, the American commander decides to take advantage of the professor's military training (he was an infantryman) and have him come along. The thinking is that even if he's just an infantryman, he'll be able to handle himself on a battlefield.
* Ziva David from NCIS was a Mossad kidon operative.
* In ''How to Ruin'' series by Simone Elkeles, Amy spends a summer in Israel and meets a guy named Avi, who is in the military there. In the third book in the series, she follows him back to Israel and signs up for military training.
* Mentioned briefly in ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' by Ibraha, who calls them "Those monsters from Jerusalem!". Unfortunately, they're never actually seen.
* Like with most world militaries, the IDF makes an appearance in ''TheSalvationWar''. However, they are not shown in the [[TriggerHappy kindest]] [[IdiotBall of lights]].
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