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I think. I worked out the distances once, but that was a while back and Wikipedia only gives square mileage.
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** In this case, "smaller territory" works out to "about 150 miles long, and less than a quarter of that wide."
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** The second: Rallying from near-complete military deactivation on the holiest day of the year to repulse an invasion during the Yom Kippur War.
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** The second: Rallying from near-complete military deactivation on the holiest day of the year to repulse repel an invasion during the Yom Kippur War.
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Now on the right.
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[[caption-width:790:The Merkava Mk.4. CoolTank and AwesomePersonnelCarrier rolled into one. And yes, it can shoot missiles too.]]
[[caption-width:790:The Merkava Mk.4. CoolTank and AwesomePersonnelCarrier rolled into one. And yes, it can shoot missiles too.]]
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[[caption-width:790:The
[[caption-width-right:250:The Merkava Mk.4. CoolTank and AwesomePersonnelCarrier rolled into one. And yes, it can shoot missiles too.
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But just in case, we better get a bomb!\\
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But just in case, we better get a bomb!\\bomb!
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* {{Conscription}}: This allows Israel to punch [[PintsizedPowerhouse above its weight]] in numbers. However keeping a lot of people under arms can hurt the economy.
** This troper once read an article that the universal conscription actually helps the Israeli economy, due to the fact that before going to college and getting a job, everyone has been through basic training, and many have leadership experience, making them much better business people (or something like that).
** This troper once read an article that the universal conscription actually helps the Israeli economy, due to the fact that before going to college and getting a job, everyone has been through basic training, and many have leadership experience, making them much better business people (or something like that).
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* {{Conscription}}: This allows Israel to punch [[PintsizedPowerhouse above its weight]] in numbers. However keeping a lot of people under arms permanently can hurt the economy.
**This troper once read an article that the universal The conscription is actually helps believed to help the Israeli economy, due to the fact that before going to college and getting economy quite a job, everyone has been through basic training, and many have bit. Its mostly a matter of mental state--there is no shortage of ex-officers with leadership experience, making them much better and the military encouraged attitude of taking the initiative. Doing the likes of say, forming a business people (or something like that).plan, doesn't seem all that daunting a task for someone who's trained to plan for and keep his head in a life and death situation as part of his job description.
**
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* TheNotSecret: The aforementioned nuclear weapons.
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* InitiationCeremony: Israeli Paratroopers have to march uphill to Jerusalem to receive their Berets. The ancient city of Masada is frequently used as a swearing-in spot.
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* InitiationCeremony: Israeli Paratroopers have to For most units, basic training concludes with a long march uphill to Jerusalem a historically or otherwise significant site (depending on the unit, usually Masada or the Western Wall) to be sworn into the IDF and receive their Berets. The ancient city of Masada is frequently used as a swearing-in spot.corps berets.
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* CrowningMomentOfFunny: Several soldiers on patrol being hit with a surprise attack of KeSha music... [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVVte550dyU#t=0m44s and dancing to it]].
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* RefugeInAudacity: The IDF has, I shit you not, designed a gun which consists of a rifle with a stuffed cat on the end of it. The entire purpose is to confuse the shit out of the enemy when pointing the gun around a corner.
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** That's part of the joke. The word means "weapon", but it's mostly used as slang for a [[spoiler: a dick.]] And both meanings are entirely appropriate here.
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** Here's three. The first: during the Six Day War, the Israelis launched a sneak attack which destroyed almost the entire Egyptian Air Force while it was ''still on the ground''. On the first day Israel destroyed the Egyptian airforce. On the next five they kicked ass with full air support. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic On the seventh day they rested.]]
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** Here's three.four. The first: during the Six Day War, the Israelis launched a sneak attack which destroyed almost the entire Egyptian Air Force while it was ''still on the ground''. On the first day Israel destroyed the Egyptian airforce. On the next five they kicked ass with full air support. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic On the seventh day they rested.]]
** The fourth: in 1981, the Israeli intelligence heard that [[BigBad Saddam Hussein]] was developing a nuclear program. So they sent a squadron of planes to fly over to Iraq - a distance the size of the U.S. away - and blow it up. And it worked - the nuclear program was delayed by at least 20 years, and when the American troops came to finish the job in Desert Storm, they found out that "the Israelis did most of our work for us".
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* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Yoni Natanayu at Entebbe
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* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Yoni Natanayu Netanyahu at Entebbe
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* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: ''Hatikvah''
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* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: ''Hatikvah''The Israeli national anthem, ''Hatikvah'', which means "the hope".
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lets not forget that little detail.
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*** And its liberal use of civilian population centers as staging grounds and rocket launching platforms.
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** [[NGOSuperPower Hezbollah]] managed to survive the 2006 Lebanon War, due in large part to it's [[EliteMooks well-trained paramilitaries]] and [[MacrossMissileMassacre massive arsenal of rockets]].
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you can\'t intimidate without showing you have it, but you can deter people with uncertainty.
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Israel has nuclear weapons (created during the time Israel collaborated with the French, with mutual assistance regarding nuclear programs) but official sources will neither confirm nor deny such weapons existence when asked. Any speculation you may hear about quality and quantity of such weapons is likely just that - speculation, although Israeli officials have on several occasions openly admitted to it before retracting the statement. Israel's nuclear arsenal is sometimes called "the worst-kept secret in the Middle East". According to historians and biographers of Israeli figureheads, this is completely intentional--the nuclear arsenal's purpose is to intimidate, not to be used.
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Israel has nuclear weapons (created during the time Israel collaborated with the French, with mutual assistance regarding nuclear programs) but official sources will neither confirm nor deny such weapons existence when asked. Any speculation you may hear about quality and quantity of such weapons is likely just that - speculation, although Israeli officials have on several occasions openly admitted to it before retracting the statement. Israel's nuclear arsenal is sometimes called "the worst-kept secret in the Middle East". According to historians and biographers of Israeli figureheads, this is completely intentional--the nuclear arsenal's purpose is to intimidate, deter, not to be used.
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Israel has nuclear weapons (created during the time Israel collaborated with the French, with mutual assistance regarding nuclear programs) but official sources will neither confirm nor deny such weapons existence when asked. Any speculation you may hear about quality and quantity of such weapons is likely just that - speculation, although Israeli officials have on several occasions openly admitted to it before retracting the statement. Israel's nuclear arsenal is sometimes called "the worst-kept secret in the Middle East". According to historians and biographers of Israeli figureheads, this is completely intentional.
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Israel has nuclear weapons (created during the time Israel collaborated with the French, with mutual assistance regarding nuclear programs) but official sources will neither confirm nor deny such weapons existence when asked. Any speculation you may hear about quality and quantity of such weapons is likely just that - speculation, although Israeli officials have on several occasions openly admitted to it before retracting the statement. Israel's nuclear arsenal is sometimes called "the worst-kept secret in the Middle East". According to historians and biographers of Israeli figureheads, this is completely intentional.
intentional--the nuclear arsenal's purpose is to intimidate, not to be used.
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** Not xactly... Zayn is... well... you know... slang for [[spoiler:dick]], IfYouKnowWhatIMean.
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* AwesomePersonnelCarrier: The Merkava is this and a CoolTank at the same time.
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* TriggerHappy: Understandably so - they are surrounded on all sides by nations that are not only hostile but want to end Israel's existence. Then there are the "Palestinians," who want to destroy the country from the inside.
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* TriggerHappy: Understandably so - they are surrounded on all sides by nations that are not only hostile but want to end Israel's existence. Then there are the "Palestinians," Palestinian terrorists, who want to destroy the country operate from the inside.urban areas.
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** Sadat's Egyptian army which reversed some Israeli gains from the Six-Day War.
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* BerserkButton: Aquaba was this during the Six-day War.
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* BerserkButton: Aquaba Aqaba was this during the Six-day War.
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* FauxActionGirl: The great majority of female soldiers in the IDF, who serve in non-combat divisions.
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* MemeticMutation: When a squad of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVVte550dyU IDF soldiers broke out into]] [[Kesha Dance]] in Hebron.
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* MemeticMutation: When a squad of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVVte550dyU IDF soldiers broke out into]] [[Kesha into Kesha Dance]] in Hebron.
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* MemeticMutation: When a squad of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVVte550dyU IDF soldiers broke out into]] [[Kesha Dance]] in Hebron.
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** Here's three. The first: during the Six Day War, the Israelis launched a sneak attack which destroyed almost the entire Egyptian Air Force while it was ''still on the ground''. On the first day Israel destroyed the Egyptian airforce. On the next five they kicked ass with full air support. On the seventh day they rested.
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** Here's three. The first: during the Six Day War, the Israelis launched a sneak attack which destroyed almost the entire Egyptian Air Force while it was ''still on the ground''. On the first day Israel destroyed the Egyptian airforce. On the next five they kicked ass with full air support. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic On the seventh day they rested.]]
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** Actually, they created bullets in secret and pretending that they were lipstick tubes. The real thing wouldn't make a very good bullet. They also hid weapons inside of milk cans and explosives in gas tanks of trucks to hide them from the Brits.
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[[ThrowawayCountry Who's next?''
-->-TomLehrer, ''Who's Next?''.
-->-TomLehrer, ''Who's Next?''.
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But just in case, we better get a bomb!''
-->-TomLehrer, ''[[ThrowawayCountry Who's Next]]?''.
-->-TomLehrer, ''[[ThrowawayCountry Who's Next]]?''.
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But just in case, we better get a bomb!''
bomb!\\
[[ThrowawayCountry Who's next?''
-->-TomLehrer,''[[ThrowawayCountry Who's Next]]?''.
''Who's Next?''.
[[ThrowawayCountry Who's next?''
-->-TomLehrer,
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-->-TomLehrer
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Click the edit button to start this new page.
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[[caption-width:790:The Merkava Mk.4. CoolTank and AwesomePersonnelCarrier rolled into one. And yes, it can shoot missiles too.]]
->''The Lord's our shepherd, says the
But just in case, we better get a bomb!''
-->-TomLehrer
->''[[NoKillLikeOverkill Killing Wheelchair-Bound People With Missiles Is Justifiable If They're Terrorists]]''
->''[[StuffBlowingUp Killing Wheelchair-Bound People With Missiles Is Awesome]]''
-->- [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/killing-wheelchairbound-people-with-missiles-is-ju,11564/ Point/Counterpoint]], ''TheOnion''
The Israeli Defence Force. Formed in 1948 from the various LaResistance factions of the time, involved in at least one war per decade, usually against numerically superior Arab forces, all won or tied, except for the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, which it debatably lost. In terms of flying skills (as measured in tactical exercises vs American and {{NATO}} forces) the IDF has some of the best pilots in the world. This is also evidenced by their very good record against Arab aircraft, even if said aircraft are downgraded export versions of Soviet stuff- look up "Bekaa Valley turkey shoot" for an idea. (even though Israel is partly able to
The State of Israel uses universal conscription of both sexes. This has resulted in the IDF gaining a reputation for [[GoodLookingPrivates hot]] [[TheSquadette female soldiers]].
Israel's principal military supplier until the early 1960s was France. The United States became Israel's major supplier after the Six Day War and remains so until the present day. However, over the decades Israel has increasingly developed its own defense industry. For example, the Mirages that Israel got from France served the basis for a number of local aircraft, i.e. the Kfir (Lion Cub). Israel was the first export customer for the F-15 Eagle and first to use it in combat.
Israel has nuclear weapons (created during the time Israel collaborated with the French, with mutual assistance regarding nuclear programs) but official sources will neither confirm nor deny such weapons existence when asked. Any speculation you may hear about quality and quantity of such weapons is likely just that - speculation, although Israeli officials have on several occasions openly admitted to it before retracting the statement. Israel's nuclear arsenal is sometimes called "the worst-kept secret in the Middle East". According to historians and biographers of Israeli figureheads, this is completely intentional.
Due to Israel's universal conscription, it is often assumed that all Israeli adults have military training, and are therefore combat capable. This is not entirely true, as both Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews are exempt from conscription, and usually do not serve. Also a non-negligible percentage of the population that does need to serve avoids it anyway. So not all Israelis have military training... just most of them. It's also important to note that most of the IDF's personnel are non-combat soldiers that have only a very basic combat training.
Related to this is the Israeli intelligence service. The Mossad (the Israeli counterpart to the CIA) is infamous for carrying out assassinations, as well as being very good at their job in general.
PS - "IDF" is the English translation. If you're ever in the area, you might refer to the Israeli army as "Tzahal" (the short version of the Hebrew name, ''[=Tzva HaHaganah LeYisra'el=]'', literally "Defense Army for Israel",צה"ל, צבא הגנה לישראל), or some variation of "the occupation forces," depending on who you're speaking to.
See also: ArabIsraeliConflict.
Tropes include:
* BadassArmy
* BadassIsraeli: The IDF is naturally a noted hangout of these.
* BerserkButton: Aquaba was this during the Six-day War.
* CatchPhrase: "Masada shall not fall again."
* CoolPlane: One of the best airforces in the world. Possibly ''the'' best. And it's not just because they have cool planes. Check out the story of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-15_Eagle#Notable_accidents_and_incidents Zivi]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LveSc8Lp0ZE Nedivi]].
* CoolTank: Israelis love these.
* {{Conscription}}: This allows Israel to punch [[PintsizedPowerhouse above its weight]] in numbers. However keeping a lot of people under arms can hurt the economy.
** This troper once read an article that the universal conscription actually helps the Israeli economy, due to the fact that before going to college and getting a job, everyone has been through basic training, and many have leadership experience, making them much better business people (or something like that).
* CrowningMomentOfAwesome
** Here's three. The first: during the Six Day War, the Israelis launched a sneak attack which destroyed almost the entire Egyptian Air Force while it was ''still on the ground''. On the first day Israel destroyed the Egyptian airforce. On the next five they kicked ass with full air support. On the seventh day they rested.
** The second: Rallying from near-complete military deactivation on the holiest day of the year to repulse an invasion during the Yom Kippur War.
** The third: The Raid on Entebbe. If you've ever seen the movie with Charles Bronson, you might think it's over-dramatic. It's not: the raid was that insanely awesome.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: ''Hatikvah''
* DisproportionateRetribution: Attack Israeli targets, and Mossad will hunt you down and kill you [[{{RefugeInAudacity}} anywhere on earth.]]
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Yoni Natanayu at Entebbe
* DeterminedHomesteader: Kibbutzim
* EagleSquadron: The Jewish Brigade in WorldWarII serving in the British Army (this only partially counts as Britain was their FeudalOverlord at the time. But it was recruited in that spirit.). Also a number of foreigners during the '48 war.
* EyepatchOfPower: Moshe Dayan
* FightingForAHomeland
* FeudalOverlord: TheBritishEmpire. Israel was a working nation long before official independence. This is one reason it survived the '48 war. However it was officially a dependent on TheBritishEmpire.
* GoodLookingPrivates: As the Real Life section of that page notes, pretty much every Miss Israel will have been in the IDF.
* ImprovisedWeapon: The Haganah used to make bullets out of lipstick tubes.
* InitiationCeremony: Israeli Paratroopers have to march uphill to Jerusalem to receive their Berets. The ancient city of Masada is frequently used as a swearing-in spot.
* TheMigration
* OneManArmy: Zvika Greengold.
* PintsizedPowerhouse: Israel has a smaller territory and population then several states in the area, and it is probably the most feared.
* ProudWarriorRace: This actually goes all the way back to the ancient Hebrews, who were reknowned as warriors.
* RealMenLoveJesus: Orde Wingate, an [[GoingNative English officer]] who trained militiamen to pursue Arab raiders in the night. If you ask [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orde_Wingate Wikipedia]] though, they would tell you he was an AxCrazy ChurchMilitant.
* TheScrounger: On one notable occasion, one Haganah agent was negotiating with a Czech ArmsDealer. To get the money needed he had to collect it from private contributions, doing things like walking into the local Jewish quarter and drumming up money.
* StormingTheCastle: Entebbe
** The attack on the fortified Old City of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War.
* TookALevelInBadass: Twice. Once when the Haganah learned to hunt down Arab guerrillas during the Arab revolt against the British (One British writer said: "They discovered that they were soldiers."). And in the Six-Day War when they surprised everyone by how much they had changed from the [[MildlyMilitary Militia]] they once were.
* TrainingThePeacefulVillagers: The British Officer Orde Wingate did this for the Haganah militia. Including a 20-year-old Ruth Westheimer, trained as a sniper and wounded in the '48 war. "Pintsized Powerhouse", indeed.
* TriggerHappy: Understandably so - they are surrounded on all sides by nations that are not only hostile but want to end Israel's existence. Then there are the "Palestinians," who want to destroy the country from the inside.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: Many of the Arabs during the '48 thought they were going to a pogrom not a war. The [[WarriorsOfTheDesertWind Jordanians]] who lived next to them knew differently.
* WorthyOpponent: The [[WarriorsOfTheDesertWind Jordanian Arab Legion]], the only Arab military that consistently held its own against the IDF. The West Bank would probably still be Jordanian if the IAF hadn't destroyed almost the entire Royal Jordanian Air Force in the first day of the Six-Day War, granting the IDF the advantage of air support.
* YouShallNotPass: The Seventh Armored Brigade on the Golan Heights in the Yom Kippur War. In particular, one guy - [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zvika_Greengold Zvika Greengold]].
* YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry: Being an IronWoobie for 2,000 years does get rather tiresome.
* YourMilageMayVary: Sympathy for either side in the ArabIsraeliConflict by outsiders is unusually ''pronounced''.
'''The IDF in fiction'''
* Herman Wouk's novels ''The Hope'' and ''The Glory''
* ''Mirage'' by James Follett, a spy thriller detailing exactly * how* the Israelis managed to get the Mirage aircraft from the French.
* ''{{Spooks}}'' [[spoiler: Accidentally kills about 70 kids in a Gaza school]]
* ''Eagle in the Sky''- A WilburSmith novel that features a South African join the IDF, then get thrown out after chasing Syrian fighters into Syria, losing his wingman and getting disfigured in the process.
* ''IndependenceDay'' - In an interesting example of... optimism... Israeli and Syrian pilots hide aircraft in the Golan heights and launch a combined attack on the alien fleet after the American example.
* ''Operation Yonatan''
* ''TheZombieSurvivalGuide'': An Israeli paratrooper platoon stops a zombie outbreak in an Egyptian village in the 70's. Trading zombies as biological weapons leads to the Egypt-Israel detente.
** WorldWarZ, from the same Verse; the IDF ends up enforcing a voluntary quarantine of the country after the Outbreaks begin, and has to fight a civil war with the ultra-orthodox as a result of this and other security and practical measures.
* ''Yossi & Jagger''
* ''WaltzWithBashir''
* ''YTheLastMan'': being the only people in the region to employ female soldiers puts Israel in a strong position when all the men die. IDF leader Alter becomes a major antagonist in the series.
* ''Tom Clancy's Endwar'': Israel is officially neutral in World War III, but very, very quietly aids and supports the European Federation.
* ''Tom Clancy's Sum of All Fears'': Opens during the Yom Kippur War, where a nuclear armed IDF aircraft is lost in action, providing the McGuffin for the plot.
* While not precisely a member of the IDF, Earth Force Colonel Ari Ben-Zayn (a one-shot character) from ''BabylonFive'' plays on all the tropes about the suspicion and toughness of Israeli soldiers--and has a massive scar to show for it. Ben-Zayn loosely translates to "Son of a Gun," so that makes it a BilingualBonus.
* YouDontMessWithTheZohan parodies this trope to no end with Zohan (Not an Israeli name) Dvir (An Israeli name), a supersoldier who can do push ups with no hands, kick two people at the same time, leap over walls, run on ceilings, and feel no pain from a piranha in the swim-suit.
* The "all Israelis have military training" is invoked in ''Vortex'' by Larry Bond. In order to take out South Africa's nuclear arsenal, the US military enlists the aid of an Israeli professor who helped the South Africans develop said arsenal. The original plan called for the professor to train the American commandos in disarming nuclear warheads. When developments force the op to launch ahead of schedule, the American commander decides to take advantage of the professor's military training (he was an infantryman) and have him come along.
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<<|ForcesWithFirepower|>>
