Israel Defense Forces

The Israel Defence Forces (Hebrew: Tsva Haganah Le-Israel, often abbreviated Tsahal) is the name of Israel's armed forces (army, air force and navy). It was founded 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."

Recent policies

The IDF uses sophisticated technology, and due to their long experience fighting Palestinian guerrillas, have developed what many consider to be the most effective methods of crowd control and use of non-lethal force, in particular in scenarios when the largely unarmed crowds are used as a cover for gunmen. Others, however, claim the IDF's methods to be not sufficiently effective, as there were numerous cases in which unarmed civilians had died during clashes.

Similar to the United States in its recent War on Terrorism, Israel targets and detains individuals to avert future terrorist acts. Unlike the United States and most other developed nations, Israel also officially uses targeted assassinations as a means of defence. Some claim that many of these other nations in effect also target individuals by directing what they deem to be otherwise valid military action in areas where they also believe certain individuals are; others argue there is a difference.

The most recent development of the Israeli tactic is announced assassinations. Here a target, usually a guerrilla leader or powerful Palestinian threat to Israel is announced to be a target. If he is not arrested by Palestinian Authority forces (which seldom happens) or by Israel's own forces, he can be killed by various methods, including sniper fire, helicopter launched rockets or explosive devices. By using this method, Israel hopes to minimize civillian casualties while maximizing the effect on Palestinian terrorism. The method remains highly controversial however, inside as well as outside Israel, also because of the risk of hurting non-combatant civilians in the process. Many reject its legitimacy outright, but no viable alternative has ever been pointed out. It is seen by the majority of Israeli public only as a measure of last resort, facing the Palestinian Authority's complicity by non-prevention.

Further reference

IDF's home page
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.

There's much more than that to be written, organizational structure, history etc. Add at will