IDF's History

The IDF traces its roots to Jewish paramilitary organization in the New Tishuv starting with the Second Aliya.

The first such organization was Bar-Giora, founde in September 1907. It was converte to Hashomer in April 1909, which operated until the British Mandate of Palestine came into being in 1920.
Hashomer was an elitiest organization with narrow scope and was mainly created to protect against criminal gangs seeking to steal property. During the WW1 the forerunners of the Haganah/IDF were te Zion Mule Corps and the Jewish Legion.

After the Arab riot in April 1920, the Yishuv leadership saw the need to create a nationwide underground defence organization and the Haganah was founded in June of the same year. The Haganah became a full scale defense force after the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine with an organization stracture, consisting in three main units: The Field Corps, The Guard Corps and the Palmach.

During WW2, the successor to the Jewish Legion of WW1 was the Jewish Brigade.The IDF founded following the establishment of the State of Israel, after Defense Minister and Prime Minister David Ben Gurion published the order of its creation on May, 26, 1948. The order called for the establishment of the Israel Defense Force (IDF), and the abolishment of all other Jewish armed forces.

Although, Ben-Gurion had no legal authority to issue such an orer, the order made legal by the cabinet on may,31. The two other Jewish underground organization, Irgun and Lehi, agreed to join the IDF if they would be able to form independent units and agreed not to make independent arms purchases. This was the background if the dispute wich led to the Altalena Affair, when following a confrontation regarding the weapon it brought resulted in a battle between Irgun members the newly created IDF. It ended when the ship was shelled. Following the affair, all independent Irgun and Lehi units, were either disbanded or merged into the IDF.

The Palmach, a strong lobby within the Haganah, also joined the IDF with provision, and Ben-Gurion responded by disbanding its staff in 1949, after which many senior Palmach officers retired, notably its first commander Itzhak Sadeh. The new army organized itself during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, when Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, declared war on Israel.
Twelve infanty and armored brigades were created: Golani, Carmli, Alexandroni, Givati, Etzioni, the 7th and 8th amored brigades, Oded, Harel, Yiftach and Negev.
After the war, some of the brigades were converted to reserve units, and other were disbanded. Golani and Givati are still on service.

Immediately after the 1948 war, Israel Defense Forces shifted to low intensity conflict against Arab Palestinian guerrillas.

The 1956 Suez Crisis was the IDF first test of strength after 1949, an the new army proved itself by capturing Sinai Penninsula from Egypt, which is immediately returned.

In the 1967 Six days War, Israel captured the Sinai Pennisula (2nd time), West Bank and Golan Heights from the surrounding Arab states, changing the balance of power in the region, a well as the role of the IDF.

In the following years leading up the Yom Kippur war, the IDF fought war of attrition against Egypt in the Sinai and a border war against the PLO in Jordan, culminating in the battle of "Karameh".
The surprise od the Yom Kippur war and its aftermath completley changed the IDF procedures and approach the warfare/ Organizational changes were made and more time was dedicated to training for conventional warfare. However, in the following years, the army's role slowly shifted again to low intensity conflict, urban warfare an counter-terrorism.

It was involved in the Lebanese Civil War, intiating operation Litani and later Lenanon war, where the IDF ousted Palestinian guerilla organizations from Lebanon. Palestinian militancy and Hezbollah has been the main focus of the IDF ever since, especially during the first and second Intifadas, operation Defensive Shield, Gaza War and Lebanon war 1 & 2, causing the IDF to change many of its values and published the IDF spirit.

Deir Yassin's Massacre

By: Steven Plaut 

FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, April 11, 2005


This week is the anniversary of the events that took place in the Arab village of Deir Yassin in 1948. In recent years, Deir Yassin has been converted into a bludgeon by the Far Left, the Neonazi Right, and Israel-bashers in general.

Deir Yassin is the ultimate "Man Bites Dog" news story supposedly based on the inversion of players. It is recited endlessly by the very same people who have nothing to say against a century of countless massacres of Jewish civilians by Arabs. The church in St. John's Wood in London is just one of many examples of outfits "commemorating" the "victims" of Deir Yassin this week.

Deir Yassin was a not-at-all innocent Arab village sitting near the only road into Jerusalem in 1948. In the previous December, the UN had voted to partition what was left of Madatory Palestine into two states, one a Jewish state and the other an Arab state to be named Palestine, of approximately equal sizes. The Jews of Israel accepted the plan, while the Arab states and the Palestinian Arab leadership rejected it. Had they accepted it, a Palestinian state would have arisen peacefully in 1948.

In response to the UN resolution, Arabs launched attacks against Jews everywhere in the country and in particular placed the city of Jerusalem under siege. The Jewish population of Jerusalem was quite literally starving. The only road into the city passed through the area of Deir Yassin, and the Arab militiamen in the town were stopping all convoys from passing through.

Since Israel had yet to be formally proclaimed, the only Jews doing the fighting were members of three poorly-armed militias. The main one was the Hagana, commanded by David Ben Gurion and the socialist Zionist party. There were two smaller ones operating independently under the command of the dissident "revisionist Zionist" movement, the Etsel and the Lehi.

Poorly-trained irregulars of the two latter militias were ordered to attack Deir Yassin to relieve the siege. They did so in ferocious hand-to-hand fighting, in which some Deir Yassin villagers were killed. The Bash-Israel lobby has always maintained that the villagers were "massacred" in cold blood, despite a distinct lack of evidence.

Those who participated in the battle claim the villagers were killed when the Jewish militiamen fired into homes from which fire was directed at them.

The village was successfully taken and the siege of Jerusalem was lifted. Large numbers of Jewish militiamen had been killed in the house-to-house battle for the village. Approximately 100 Arabs in the village died, a number that was later greatly inflated by anti-Jewish propagandists to 250.

Part of the problem was that the mainstream socialist Zionist parties themselves magnified the supposed misbehavior of the two opposition militias in order to discredit them in the coming political contest for control of the emerging Jewish state. This trend has been echoed in recent years, and Deir Yassin has become the "massacre of choice" for anti-Semites trying to prove the Jews are bloodthirsty barbarians. In part these have based their claims on a document by a Hagana officer, one Meir Peil, who was not actually present at the battle but surveyed the village AFTER the fighting was finished.

Peil claimed he thought there had been looting and intentional killing of some villagers. The problem is that Peil is also a leftwing radical and not exactly a neutral source. Other less politicized sources tell a different tale. Even some Arab sources confirm that no massacre took place in Deir Yassin.

Meanwhile, a few years back the ZOA issued a new study, Deir Yassin History of a Lie, a 32-page analysis (with 156 footnotes) by ZOA National President Morton A. Klein. (For a free copy, please call (21....)

 Among other things, the ZOA study shows that the original claim of 254 dead was not based on any actual body count. The number was invented by Mordechai Ra'anan, leader of the Jewish soldiers who fought in Deir Yassin. He later admitted that the figure was a deliberate exaggeration in order to undermine the morale of the Arab forces, which had launched a war against the Jews in Mandatory Palestine to prevent the establishment of Israel. Other eyewitnesses to the battle estimated that about 100 Arabs had died.

Despite Ra'anan's admission, the figure 254 was circulated by Palestinian Arab leader Hussein Khalidi. His claims about Deir Yassin were the basis for an article in the New York Times claiming a massacre took place--an article that has been widely reprinted and cited as "proof" of the massacre throughout the past 57 years.

Meanwhile, there have been numerous exposes of the lies that have been invented surrounding the battle for Deir Yassin and these have largely discredited the Peil "eyewitness" report.

A massacre did take indeed take place, following the events in Deir Yassin, which had occurred on Friday morning April 9, 1948. On Monday morning, April 13, 1948, an Arab mob, chanting "Deir Yassin", massacred a bus convoy of Jewish doctors and nurses who were headed to Hadassah hospital on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. Seventy-eight members of Hadassah's medical staff were murdered in cold blood. Only recently was it revealed that some of the Hadassah nurses had found refuge in the nearby compound of the British consul, only to be turned over to Arabs by the Brits, and the Arabs proceeded to slaughter them in "revenge" for what they thought had occurred at Deir Yassin.

Both sides used the symbol of "Remember Deir Yassin" in 1948 during the war.

There were Jews who intimidated Arabs with the slogan and there were Arab commanders who rallied their populace with the same adage. Meanwhile, what has fanned the flames of Deir Yassin has been the United Nations decision to confine more than three million Palestinian Arabs to refugee camps, promising them the "right of return" to Arab villages that no longer exist.

In recent years a group of pro-Arab propagandists in the US have stared holding annual "memorials" for the "victims" of the "massacre" in Deir Yassin. The late Edward Said had been a member and the group includes such people as anti-Semite Norman Finkelstein, Saudi-financed ex-congressman Paul Findlay, and PLO propagandist Hanan Ashwari.

These are people who have never denounced Arab massacres of Jewish children, which were committed not by poorly trained irregulars in the heat of a crucial battle, but by Islamofascist terrorists awash in money and under the direct personal command of the PLO.

Steven Plaut is a professor at the Graduate School of the Business Administration at the University of Haifa and is a columnist for the Jewish Press. A collection of his commentaries on the current events in Israel can be found on his "blog" at www.stevenplaut.blogspot.com.

Bleeding Heart

To you, the citizens of the "bleeding heart" world...

Before you attacking us with words, claim that we are brutal, talking about how emotionless we are, before you sending another e-mail or chat to the world that claims that the Israelis are the problematic, before you determine that we are the bad guys and the rest are week and miserable, I wonder if you know these things:

1) When you were born, you left the hospital with flowers and presents -
Babies in Israel, left the hospital with gas mask and self defending kit.

2) When you learn in the kindergarten how to draw and sing -
Kids in kindergarten in Israel learns what to do in case of alarm and where is the shelter.

3) When you celebrate for the good days -
We celebrate that "they" didn't succeed to eliminate us during all these years.

4) When you have a memorial day for a friend or relative that died in old age -
We memorize that six millions of our nation murdered just because they were Jewish and our soldiers who dies in daily basis to defend us from Islamic terrorism or any other threats.

5) When the age of 18, you start your academic studying, we must join the army (IDF)
and not necessarily that we come to 20 years old.

6) When you are planning vacation overseas and ask about sea and pampering -
We, first of all, have to check if there are any warnings about the place.

7) When you build your house in your country with big guestroom and playroom -
We obliged to build our with a "strong-room".

8) When you go out to have fun, going out to a movie or restaurant, a host is waiting for you in the entrance - We have a guard to check that no one will come to explode and kill innocent people.

9) When you take the bus in the morning on your way to your work or arrangements -
You don't need to be frightened and you don't need to look at the rest of the passengers and search for suspects.

10) When you drive across your wonderful country from north to south or from east to west -
You don't need to be afraid of an ambush.

11) In the last war of your country, takes part your grandfather, now at the age of 87 -
I already took part in 4 wars, and I am only 37.

But this is our reality and we don't have problem with that. We never complained and we never looked for any mercy. There were better days that we hoped for peace, but when there are leaders in the twentieth century from other nation, that announce that it will be better to eliminate the Jewish state...

I assumes that we forced for many years in this reality that when you read this letter you discover that it is non-realistic to live like that. So when you are in your peaceful and pastoral country and sometimes hear news about the Middle-East, please do me a favor and don't even think you know who or what is right.

And if you do want to know better - You invite to live here and then...
We Will Talk!

Israel's Promise Land

The history of the Jewish people begins with Abraham, and the story of Abraham begins when G-d tells him to leave his homeland, promising Abraham and his descendants a new home in the land of Canaan. (Gen. 12). This is the land now known as Israel, named after Abraham's grandson, whose descendants are the Jewish people. The land is often referred to as the Promised Land because of G-d's repeated promise (Gen. 12:7, 13:15, 15:18, 17:8) to give the land to the descendants of Abraham.

The land is described repeatedly in the Torah as a good land and "a land flowing with milk and honey" (e.g., Ex. 3:8). This description may not seem to fit well with the desert images we see on the nightly news, but let's keep in mind that the land was repeatedly abused by conquerors who were determined to make the land uninhabitable for the Jews. In the few decades since the Jewish people regained control of the land, we have seen a tremendous improvement in its agriculture. Israeli agriculture today has a very high yield.

Jews have lived in this land continuously from the time of its original conquest by Joshua more than 3200 years ago until the present day, though Jews were not always in political control of the land, and Jews were not always the majority of the land's population.

The land of Israel is central to Judaism. A substantial portion of Jewish law is tied to the land of Israel, and can only be performed there. Some rabbis have declared that it is a mitzvah (commandment) to take possession of Israel and to live in it (relying on Num. 33:53). The Talmud indicates that the land itself is so holy that merely walking in it can gain you a place in the World to Come. Prayers for a return to Israel and Jerusalem are included in daily prayers as well as many holiday observances and special events.

Living outside of Israel is viewed as an unnatural state for a Jew. The world outside of Israel is often referred to as "galut," which is usually translated as "diaspora" (dispersion), but a more literal translation would be "exile" or "captivity." When we live outside of Israel, we are living in exile from our land.

Jews were exiled from the land of Israel by the Romans in 135 C.E., after they defeated the Jews in a three-year war, and Jews did not have any control over the land again until 1948 C.E.

I am Israel

I am Israel - I came to a land as a nation in 1312 B.C, 2 millennium before Islam. Arab refugees from Israel began calling themselves Palestinians in 1967, 2 decades after the modern Israeli statehood

ERASING THE HISTORY.

I am Israel - Some of my enemies committed massacre on my people in 1920 and 1929 and continuing massacre my people until these very last days.

I am Israel - Some of my enemies who committed massacres on my people became as Palestinian leaders and also got Prize Nobel" for peace (unbelievable)

I am Israel - I fought for my life against 8 Arab countries by my hands and guns, My enemies claims Deir Yassin as a massacre. But the FACT is 100 gun men such as Palestinians, Jordanians, Syrians, Iraqis, and Yemens who came to terrorize Israel for the sake of jihad. 17 civilians died because they let the terrorists to use their home as a battle field.

I am Israel - In 1953 The Christian Falanges slaughtered the Palestinian terrorists in Sabra and Shatila as revenge for terrorize Lebanon and murder Bashir Jemayel, But of course the Lobby Jewish Basher blame Ariel Sharon for this massacre. The fact is Ariel Sharon found unguilty and also found responsible indirectly because he didn't know what's going inside the refugees camps.

I am Israel - I came back to my homeland after the holocaust and wanted to live in peace with the Palestinians... who supported Hitler (Hag Amin Al-Husseini - The grand mufti of Jerusalem).
I accepted the UN partition although when the Arabs had NO rights on the land. But of course the Arabs couldn't accept this partition because they want to throw all Jews to the sea as Gamal Abdul Nasser claims.

I am Israel - In 1967 I defended myself against 6 Arab countries who want to wipe Israel from the Map. I occupied back Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the territories that was belong to my people since the ancient bible time. The Arabs tried to erase any evidence of 3300 years of history of my people in my home land. See Al-Aqsa mosque that built exactly on my temple in Jerusalem.

I am Israel - I oppressive a military rules on these territories as an answer for the "Palestinian" terrorists who comes to kill as much Jews as they can, regardless to the age of their victims, killing babies, children women and old people.

I am Israel - Eventually, Moshe Dayan asked the Arabs to not leave Israel and to live in peace with us, but the Arabs refused to stay, claiming they will back to Israel when they will win the land in a future war.

I am Israel - I have the power of thinking with my brain to create and invent new products, business opportunities and finance ideas, That's why the Jews got 181 Nobel prizes compare to 8 Nobel prizes for Muslims. The entire worlds use my help for agriculture, water systems, technology, banks, etc.

I am Israel - All the forces of the world are uses me as a scapegoat all long the history because it's always easier to blame the Jews in the trouble of the world, including the UN. I call it jealousy and hypocrisy. I am glad I have one true country friend as U.S.A who help to stop the UN from helping the Muslims to wipe Israel from the map because they scares from Muslim terrorism.

I am Israel - Who get blame of controlling the global Media of, but unfortunately I read every time a new blood label against my people,(See the new Swedish blood label) The hypocrite "bleeding heart" people believe to the Palestinian propaganda.

Damn, If I am controlling the global media, where all these blood labels come from?

I am Israel - and you "Palestinians" want to negotiate peace?
Then stop terrorize me and accept our right to live in peace, accept our good willing for you to live in peace.

While we "negotiate", stop launch missiles to the power station that supply electricity to Gaza or to south Israel. Stop Hamas of stealing the humanitarian supply that we are sending to you. Stop to use our gas supply for making more Qassam missiles instead to fuel your cars. Then, we can keep negotiate for peace.

I am Israel - With the fourth strongest army in the world possessing nuclear weapon to defend my people against 22 Muslim countries who want to wipe me from the global map. I promise not to use it for attack my enemies by chemical (or nuclear) weapon, as it happened in Iran-Iraq war from September 1980 to August 1988.

I am Israel - 1,184 people have been killed and 8341 was wounded by Palestinian violence and terrorism between 2000-2007 in a total of 140 suicide attacks, Ignore as I do, the dead and wounded of Israelis by the Palestinian Qassam rockets in this period of time.

I am Israel - Do you want full freedom?
Then start to build your land, create jobs, build hospitals and schools, invent new patents, export to the world your merchandise, develop your economy, etc...
And most of all, stop brainwashing your children and youths to kill Jews

DO YOU GET THE MESSAGE?

YOU WILL NEVER GET PEACE OR FREEDOM IF YOU KEEPS TERRORIZE US.

FREE ISRAEL FROM PALESTINIAN TERRORISM!