Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the Israel Defense Forces, the combined military forces of Israel.
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News David Gordon Survived Abuse and Gaza War — But Did He Really Commit Suicide?
On an early summer Friday in 2012, David Gordon was exploring the Galilee Mountains, near Tzfat, on his own. An Israeli couple saw him — a friendly-looking 19-year-old — on the trail, and asked if he would take their picture. Gordon happily agreed, and by the end of the conversation, in typical Israeli fashion, he…
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Fast Forward Druze Israelis Attack IDF Ambulance Carrying Wounded Syrians
An Israel Defense Forces ambulance carrying wounded Syrians to local hospitals was attacked by Druze residents of Israel. The Israeli Druze asked to check whether the wounded being carried by the ambulance on Monday were rebel members, who have been locked in a civil war with Syrian government forces for more than 4 years, according…
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Fast Forward Israel Army Clears Soldiers in ‘Boys on Beach’ Gaza Shelling
Israeli military prosecutors closed a probe into the death of four children in Gaza last year and opened three new ones — including an alleged revenge shelling. The Israel Defense Forces’ announcement Thursday on the closure of the probe said the children’s deaths on a Gaza beach in July as a result of an airstrike…
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Fast Forward Grandma’s Pork Sandwich Lands Lone Soldier in IDF Hot Water
An American serving in the Israeli army was sentenced to military jail for bringing non-kosher pork sandwiches to his base and offering them to fellow soldiers. The 11-day sentence was reduced, however, to missing a weekend furlough after an Israel Radio reporter contacted the Israel Defense Forces about the case. Israel Radio was the first…
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Opinion What Breaking the Silence Report Says About Gaza War — and Doesn’t
“Three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty,” Carl von Clausewitz wrote in On War. Von Clausewitz was addressing the unpredictability and uncertainty of even the best-planned military campaigns. Military and political leaders cannot see far and thus need to be…
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Culture After My Son Came Home From India
When I received the news that my son was returning from India, I was abroad. I was not expecting his return, since I had responded only recently to his urgent email request to renew his medical insurance for the third time. I was livid: How could he do this to me? I seldom travel, and…
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Israel News Ultra-Orthodox Celebrate Rollback of Israel Draft Law
At 21 years old, Yaakov Liwer is eligible to join the Israeli military. But instead, the tall redhead spends his days studying at a yeshiva in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Geula neighborhood. “I wanted to go [to the Israeli Defense Forces],” he explained. “I feel a connection. But Halacha says that people that learn are not allowed…
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Fast Forward Israel Coalition Deal May Kill Haredi Draft Law
(JTA) — So, the Israel Defense Forces won’t be drafting haredi Orthodox Israelis, after all. That’s the upshot of a coalition deal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will reportedly sign with United Torah Judaism, Israel’s Ashkenazi haredi Orthodox party. The agreement, which Likud and UTJ could ink as soon as Wednesday, would repeal a spate…
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Opinion What a remarkable Torah rescued from Iran — then LA’s fire — can teach about community amid devastation
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Looking Forward How a new ketubah helped one couple restart after the LA fire
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Fast Forward Biden team resolves its final Title VI antisemitism and anti-Arab cases
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Fast Forward These are the hostages to be released (and left behind) in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal’s first phase
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Music Bob Dylan joins TikTok — just in time for TikTok to be banned
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