History UsefulNotes / IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles

* The [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire Roman Empire]] era-set miniseries ''Series/{{Masada}}'' is {{bookend|s}}ed by IDF swearing-in ceremonies of the IDF at the eponymous ancient fortress.

* ''Yossi & Jagger'': The story of two gay IDF soldiers.

* ''Film/YouDontMessWithTheZohan'' parodies this trope to no end with Zohan (not an Israeli name) Dvir (an Israeli surname), 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.

* 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 Dick" in Hebrew slang, so that makes it a BilingualBonus with several layers ("Ziyun" is the Hebrew for "armament" too, [[FreudWasRight so yeah]]).

* ''Series/{{Spooks}}'' [[spoiler: Accidentally kills about 70 kids in a Gaza school]]

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* 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 ''Literature/TheSalvationWar''. However, they are not shown in the [[TriggerHappy kindest]] [[IdiotBall of lights]].
* The IDF appear as a counter-terrorist faction in [[VideoGame/CounterStrike Counter Strike: Global Offensive]].
* ''Jane's IAF: Israeli Air Force'' is an aerial combat simulator featuring both historical scenarios, like the 1982 Lebanon War, and hypothetical conflicts as campaigns available for the player.
* Music/{{Sabaton}} has the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_N7PSkwUmA Counterstrike]], which is about the [[UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict Six-Day War]].
* ''Valley of Tears'', an Israeli miniseries about the Yom Kippur War, which also aired on Creator/HBOMax for international audiences.

* 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.
* ''Series/{{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, shall we say, optimism, Israeli and Syrian pilots hide aircraft in the Golan heights and launch a combined attack on the alien fleet after the American example.
* ''Film/{{Lebanon}}'': The 1982 Lebanon war through the perspective of a tank crew.
* ''Operation Yonatan''
* ''Literature/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.
** ''Literature/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''
* ''Animation/WaltzWithBashir'' is a complete deconstruction of this trope.

* ''Tom Clancy's Endwar'': Israel is officially neutral in World War III, but very, very quietly aids and supports the European Federation.

* 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 Dick" in Hebrew slang, so that makes it a BilingualBonus with several layers.
** "Ziyun" is the Hebrew for "armament" too, [[FreudWasRight so yeah]].
* ''Film/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 ''VideoGame/ProjectReality''.

* 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.

The State of Israel uses universal conscription for all Jewish citizens. This has resulted in the IDF gaining a reputation for hot [[TheSquadette female soldiers]], although many women, particularly religious ones, fulfill this obligation by doing national service instead of joining the armed forces. 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, dispelling the popular perception that the entire Israeli population is combat-ready.

* ''Mirage'' by James Follett, a spy thriller detailing exactly '''how''' the Israelis managed to get the Mirage aircraft from the French.

* ''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.

Israel's principal military supplier until the early 1960s was France. This began to change in the wake of the Six Day War (1967), as the United States increased their dealings with Israel, becoming the nation's top supplier of military aid. Since 1962, Israel has received nearly $100 billion in US military aid, a sum roughly equivalent to 3% of its GDP during that period. This proved extremely valuable to the country's nascent arms industry, which has since flourished, developing a number of local aircraft, a series of [[TankGoodness tanks]] and APCs, several types of missile boat, various firearms, rocket and missile systems, combat-related robots, electronic warfare systems and a wide range of [[AttackDrone UAVs]]. Despite this, the [[CoolGuns/SubmachineGuns IMI Uzi]] remains the best-known weapon developed in Israel.

* The "all Israelis have military training" is invoked in ''Literature/Vortex'' by Larry Bond and Patrick Larkin. 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 Series/NCIS was a Mossad kidon operative.

* ''Valley of Tears'', an Israeli miniseries about the Yom Kippur War, who also aired on Creator/HBOMax for international audiences.

* The "all Israelis have military training" is invoked in ''Vortex'' by Larry Bond and Patrick Larkin. 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.

צבא הגנה לישראל ''Tzva Haganah [=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. In terms of flying skills (as measured in tactical exercises vs American and UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} forces) the IDF has some of the best pilots in the world. This is also evidenced by their excellent record against Arab aircraft, although said aircraft are typically downgraded export versions of Soviet stuff--though for most of the wars, Israel's aircraft were even worse. (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 should be the first place you check.

* ''Mirage'' by James Follett, a spy thriller detailing exactly * how* the Israelis managed to get the Mirage aircraft from the French.

** "Ziyun" is the Hebrew for "armament" too, so yeah.

Officially Israel neither confirms nor denies possessing nuclear weapons. [[OpenSecret Everyone is pretty sure they've got them anyway.]]

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 extremely efficient in their work.

Israel's principal military supplier until the early 1960s was France. This began to change in the wake of the Six Day War (1967), as the United States increased their dealings with Israel, becoming the nation's top supplier of military aid. Since 1962, Israel has received nearly $100 billion is US military aid, a sum roughly equivalent to 3% of its GDP during that period. This proved extremely valuable to the country's nascent arms industry, which has since flourished, developing a number of local aircraft, a series of [[TankGoodness tanks]] and APCs, several types of missile boat, various firearms, rocket and missile systems, combat-related robots, electronic warfare systems and a wide range of [[AttackDrone UAVs]]. Despite this, the [[CoolGuns/SubmachineGuns IMI Uzi]] remains the best-known weapon developed in Israel.

צבא הגנה לישראל ''Tzva Haganah [=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. In terms of flying skills (as measured in tactical exercises vs American and UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} forces) the IDF has some of the best pilots in the world. This is also evidenced by their excellent record against Arab aircraft, although said aircraft are typically downgraded export versions of Soviet stuff--though for most of the wars, Israel's aircraft was even worse. (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 should be the first place you check.

Israel's principal military supplier until the early 1960s was France. This began to change in the wake of the Six Day War (1967), as the United States increased their dealings with Israel, becoming the nation's top supplier of military aid. Since 1962, Israel has received nearly $100 billion is US military aid, a sum roughly equivalent to 3% of its GDP during that period. This proved extremely valuable to the country's nascent arms industry, which has since flourished, developing a number of local aircraft, a series of [[TankGoodness tanks]] and APCs, several types of missile boat, various firearms, rocket and missile systems, combat-related robots, electronic warfare systems and a wide range of [[AttackDrone UAVs]]. Despite this, the [[NeverLiveItDown "Uzi"]] remains the best-known weapon developed in Israel.

-->'''Lieutenant General Moshe Dayan'''

* 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.

See also: ArabIsraeliConflict, UsefulNotes/TheSamsonOption, BadassIsraeli.

* ''{{Spooks}}'' [[spoiler: Accidentally kills about 70 kids in a Gaza school]]

See also: ArabIsraeliConflict, UsefulNotes/TheSamsonOption.

* 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.

צבא הגנה לישראל ''Tzva Haganah [=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. In terms of flying skills (as measured in tactical exercises vs American and UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} forces) the IDF has some of the best pilots in the world. This is also evidenced by their excellent record against Arab aircraft, although said aircraft are typically downgraded export versions of Soviet stuff--though for most of the wars, Israel's aircraft was even worse. (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.