Israel Defense Forces

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) (Hebrew: ??? ????? ?????? {{Audio|He-Israeli Defense Forces.ogg|Ts'va Ha-Ha'ganah Le-Yisrael}} (" Force for the Defense of Israel"), often abbreviated ??"? Tsahal, alternative English spelling Tzahal, is the name of Israel's armed forces, comprising the Israel army, Israel air force and Israel navy. It was formed following the founding of Israel in 1948 to "defend the existence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state of Israel" and "to protect the inhabitants of Israel and to combat all forms of terrorism which threaten the daily life." The predecessors to the IDF were the Haganah (in particular, its operational branch, the Palmach) and former elements of the Jewish Brigade that fought under the British flag during World War II. See also Jewish legion.

External links

• IDF's Official Website
• The IDF Spirit - the ethical code of the IDF
• Civil society under attack(detailing IDF)
• IDF Code of Conduct
• The Sword and the Olive, Martin Van Creveld, ISBN 1-891620-05-3. A thorough and critical history of the IDF from the early defence leagues, and up to the late 1990s.
• FAS's page about Israel's nuclear capability
• BBC: Israel undercover
• Israeli Weapons
• Isayeret.com: The Israeli Special Forces Database
• Statistics about IDF ratio of thwarting suicide bombing attacks (link to DOC file)
• Defense-Update Online Magazine
• Haaretz report: "From 40 attacks per quarter to 5 attacks per quarter" :English - Hebrew - Graph 1: Thwarted attacks (yellow) vs successful attacks (red) - Graph 2: Suicide bombing within the "green line" per quarter .
• War Online - military analysis and military history of the Middle East, especially IDF (Russian, English)