The Israel Defense Forces
Branches and commands, the doctrines that guide them, and the wars that have shaped the Jewish state.
Branches
Branches
The IDF's three main services, four directorates, three regional commands, and the elite units that operate above them. From the F-35I Adir squadrons of the Air and Space Force to Sayeret Matkal, the building blocks of Israeli combat power.
Doctrine
Doctrine
How Israel thinks about war. Ben-Gurion's three pillars of Deterrence, Early Warning and Decisive Victory; the People's Army; the Qualitative Military Edge; the Begin Doctrine on enemy WMD; the multi-layered air-defense doctrine; and the post-Oct 7 turn to Forward Defense.
Key Operations
Key Operations
The wars and operations that shaped the Jewish state, from the 1948 War of Independence through the Six-Day War, Yom Kippur, Entebbe, Osirak, the Ethiopian aliyot, the Lebanon and Gaza campaigns, the 2024 destruction of Hezbollah, and the 2025 war that crippled the Iranian nuclear program.