Talk:History of the Israel Defense Forces

This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

NPOV

This article is very pro-Israeli. It needs neutralisation.

An unsigned remark, proferring no evidence does not warrant a disputed tag.--Mrfixter 14:38, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Uses of the word "liberation" to describe Israeli military successes or calling tank commanders "brave" is not very NPOV. Also there is no citation on the remark that Egypt lied to Syria and Jordan during the Six-Day War. Also it claims the PLO was responsible for the 1972 Munich Massacre when in fact the responsibility was much more complex. And who thinks of the IAF as one of the most competent air forces in the world? I certainly do not after the operations in Lebanon. Obviously this articles was written by Israelis or someone with great interest in the Israeli military. Thereby the issue of NPOV has gone without notice. I'm putting a NPOV-dispute tag on the article and I hope we can neutralize it. /Dunord 20:03, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Parhaps this article should be moved to "Military History of Israel" to conform with the other "military history of" articles? For example, the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_by_country could reasonably offer a link to this article, instead of having "Military History of Israel" in red type. Sammy1339, 1/30/06

Minor Logical Nitpick

I'm not 100% familiar with the particulars of the history of the Six Day War, but the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs of this subsection contain an apparent contradiction. The article describes a pre-emptive Israeli strike on the air forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan, while it states in the next breath that Egypt lied in order to coax Syria and Jordan into the war. That doesn't quite make sense as stated. Also, lied is an awfully stong word in this case, fog of war being what it is and all. I just checked the main Six Day War article and it doesn't quite corroborate this account. (I'm deferring editing myself because of my lack of specific knowledge.) Duke Leto 06:19, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:MosheDayan small.jpg

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BetacommandBot (talk) 15:04, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

COs

What provision does the IDF make for conscientious objectors? Padres Hana (talk) 21:31, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

The invading Arab armies

"Following the declaration of independence in 1948, Arab armies invaded Israel. Egypt came from the south, Lebanon and Syria from the north, and Jordan from the east backed by Iraqi and Saudi troops." This statement seems to identify "Israel" as being the entire area of Mandate Palestine. True the international borders of the state of Israel have never been defined, but it seems a little inaccurate to describe the 'Arab armies' invading Israel when most of them entered areas only conquered by Israel in 1967. Padres Hana (talk) 21:47, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Copyright Violations

Most of the article is directly copied from a 2006 article in Haaretz: . 173.61.148.217 (talk) 09:24, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

The leader of the IDF has called for a ground invasion of Gaza

It's a well referenced historical fact. Hcobb (talk) 10:50, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

He most certainly has not. You're jumping to conclusions based on partial quotes, basically WP:OR. What he said, as your Defence Update reference makes quite clear, is "We are prepared just as we were to act should it become necessary. Besides, Wikipedia is not a news site and this article is about the history of the IDF, not about what Ganz has to say. Poliocretes (talk) 11:04, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

Discussion relevant to this topic

It is proposed to rename Jewish insurgency in Palestine → Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine.

Please discuss it on Jewish insurgency in Palestine talk page.GreyShark (dibra) 15:00, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

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Edit request 1 February 2026

Description of suggested change: My bad, I had thought the restriction on editing was limited to the recent conflict, especially as this article wasn't locked. I have a few change requests I had included, based on the accuracy and information in this article.

Diff:

−

In accordance with Plan Dalet the Haganah tried to secure the areas allotted to the Jewish state in the partition plan and the blocks of settlements that were in the area allotted to the Arab state.

+

In accordance with Plan Dalet the Haganah tried to secure the areas allotted to the Jewish state in the partition plan and the blocks of settlements that were in the area allotted to the Arab state. Other groups that would later merge into the IDF, such as Lehi and Irgun, crossed into the UN defined Arab state before the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, such as during the [[Deir Yassin massacre]].

The massacre was in the Arab portion allotted by the UN, and occurred a month before the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Added additional context to groups that were foundational to the IDF.

Description of suggested change: Adding context to these groups

Diff:

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The army was officially set up on 31 May. This involved renaming existing Haganah and Palmach Brigades and bringing them under one central command. Its officers began to take their oaths of allegiance on 27 June.[4] Lehi and Irgun came under central control in the following months.

+

The army was officially set up on 31 May. This involved renaming existing Haganah and Palmach Brigades and bringing them under one central command. Its officers began to take their oaths of allegiance on 27 June.[4] Lehi and Irgun, paramilitary organizations that had previously been involved in terrorist attacks against both British authorities, and Palestinian civilians, integrated into the IDF in the following months.

Sources: Rowe, David E.; Schulmann, Robert J., eds (2007). Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb, p. 350. Princeton University Press https://web.archive.org/web/20251205144919/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Irgun-Zvai-Leumi https://books.google.pt/books?id=SOhJQbP77h0C&pg=PA29&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.pt/books?id=yrBtAAAAMAAJ&q=terror+out+of+zion&redir_esc=y

Diff:

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The IDF was based on the personnel who had served in the [[Haganah]] and the [[Palmach]] (itself the elite force of the Haganah) and was declared as the only legal armed force in Israel. Another main source of manpower were the immigrants from Europe. Some of them [[the Holocaust|Holocaust]] survivors and others veterans from World War II.

+

The IDF was based on the personnel who had served in the [[Haganah]] and the [[Palmach]] (itself the elite force of the Haganah) and was declared as the only legal armed force in Israel. Another main source of manpower were the immigrants from Europe. Some of them [[the Holocaust|Holocaust]] survivors and others veterans from World War II. Certain operations, such as [[Operation Cast Thy Bread|Operation Cast thy Bread]], continued from Haganah with the IDF.

To denote that, it wasn't just an absorption of Haganah personnel, but an adoption and continuation of some of their operations.

Sources: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-10-14/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/documents-confirm-israelis-poisoned-arab-wells-in-1948/00000183-d2b2-d8cc-afc7-fefed64d0000 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00263206.2022.2122448 https://web.archive.org/web/20240123111125/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10736700108436862 — Preceding unsigned comment added by ReiPeixe (talk • contribs) 09:12, 2 February 2026 (UTC)

ReiPeixe (talk) 16:13, 1 February 2026 (UTC)

 Not done: according to the page's protection level, you should be able to edit the page yourself. If you seem to be unable to, please reopen the request with further details.
Note: the above is just the deny template done for permissions since it's applicable. Feel free to simply make this edit and if contested follow normal consensus protocol. Happy editing! FMRadio_{(talk | edits | she/her)} 19:18, 1 February 2026 (UTC)

Whoops! Forgot about the contentious topic lock. I'll try to come back to this when I have time to actually proof this. FMRadio_{(talk | edits | she/her)} 19:21, 1 February 2026 (UTC)

 Not done: Do not bother. It violates WP:NPOV or risks doing so, and the mere fact someone (myself) is saying that means it is too contentious to be an edit request. Also see my answer to the similar request by the same user at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Jewish_terrorism#c-Slomo666-20260205161500-ReiPeixe-20260205151100 Slomo666 (talk) 20:41, 5 February 2026 (UTC)

Only “parts” fall under ARBPIA?

I am surprised to see the present article merely carries the “relatedcontent” version of the template. Surely an article on the IDF (history, which starts right after the Israeli war of independence) would fall entirely under the category? As the article is currently not protected (not even semi-protected or pending changes), this leaves it less protected than articles like Eurovision Song Contest 2026 which is only tangentially related in my view. Slomo666 (talk) 20:52, 5 February 2026 (UTC)

I think you are probably right. It's really only the 'Other famous generals and soldiers' section that might not covered by ECR, although even that is debatable. I've updated the template. A request for protection can be submitted if the number of WP:ARBECR violations spikes, or now, it doesn't really matter. Sean.hoyland (talk) 03:19, 6 February 2026 (UTC)