The history of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intertwines in its early stages with history of the Haganah.
Before 1948
Following the 1947 UN Partition Plan, which divided the British Mandate of Palestine, the country became increasingly volatile and fell into a state of civil war between the Jews and Arabs after the Arab residents rejected any plan that would allow for the displacement of so many Arabs. 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.
1948 Arab–Israeli War
David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the Israeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948. His first order was the formation of the IDF – The Israel Defense Forces.
The IDF was based on the personnel who had served in the Haganah and the Palmach (itself the elite force of the Haganah)Brener, Uri (1978). The Palmach – Its Warriors and Operation. special edition for Palmach national convention and was declared as the only legal armed force in Israel. Another main source of manpower were the immigrants from Europe. Some of them Holocaust survivors and others veterans from World War II.
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, in what Azzam Pasha, Arab League Secretary speaking on Cairo radio, declared would be "a war of extermination and a momentous massacre."Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, Alfred A. Knopf, 1999, p. 219.
In the initial phase of the war, the IDF was inferior in both numbers and armament. Invading Arab armies boasted 270 tanks, 150 field guns and 300 aircraft. The IDF had zero planes and three tanks.A.J. Barker, The Arab Israeli Wars, Hippocrene Books, 1981. Due to a number of reasons, the Arabs never managed to exploit their superiority in numbers. The Israelis managed to successfully defend themselves in virtually all battlefields with the notable exception of East Jerusalem. After the first truce 11 June to 8 July, the Israelis managed to seize the initiative due to new troop enrollments and supplies of arms. Notable achievements of the IDF include the conquest of Eilat (Um Rashrash), Nazareth, and the capture of the Galilee and the Negev.
The war continued until 20 July 1949, when the armistice with Syria was signed. By then the IDF had managed to repel the Egyptians to the Gaza Strip while Jordan took over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
See 1949 Armistice Agreements.
Founding
The evolution from several underground militias to a state army is not simple. Many in the Haganah felt it was their High Command's natural role to become the leadership of the new army. The First Law of the Provisional State Council, Paragraph 18, of the Order of Government and Legal Arrangement stated that "the Provisional Government is empowered to set up armed forces on land, sea and air, which will be authorised to carry out all necessary and legal actions for the defence of the country." The sensitivity of this issue is indicated by the delay of two weeks before, on 26 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion, for the Provisional Government, published the Israel Defense Forces Ordinance Number 4. It covered the establishment of the IDF, conscription duties, the oath of allegiance, and the prohibition of any other armed forces. The execution of the Ordinance was assigned to the Minister of Defence, David Ben-Gurion. His priority was the dissolution of military organisations affiliated to political parties. This led to a series of confrontations with leaders of the Palmach known as The General's Revolt.
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.Peri, Yoram. Between battles and ballots – Israeli military in politics. CUP, 1983. . pp. 52, 131, 132, 298. Lehi and Irgun came under central control in the following months.
Despite several further ordinances the actual role and responsibilities of the Minister of Defense were not defined. Nor was there any legal definition of the Cabinet's civil authority over the army.De Gaury, Gerald, The New State of Israel. Derek Verschoyle Ltd, London. 1952. p. 183. General Amnesty Ordinance, 1949; Kosher Food for Soldiers Ordinance, 1949; Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance, 1948; Jerusalem Military Government (Confirmation) Ordinance, 1949 and the Firearms Ordinance, 1949. De Gaury suggests that the legal authority held by the High Commissioner under the Defences (Emergency) Regulations, 1945, was transferred to the Minister of Defence.
1949–1956
In those years the IDF started to rebuild itself as a modern army. It acquired heavier weapons and established an armored corps and the Israeli Air Force.
In order to enhance the morale and organization of the army and to combat the resurgent problem with Palestinian infiltration, Unit 101 was formed. It was led by Ariel Sharon, and carried out a number of retaliatory strikes on Jordanian territory to deter the infiltrators. After committing the notorious Qibya Massacre in 1953 it was merged with the Paratroopers Battalions and Sharon became its commander. Unit 101 is regarded as the mother of the IDF's strike force units.
In those years the IMI Uzi SMG and the FN FAL rifle were issued as standard infantry weapons.
Suez Crisis
From 1954 and 1955 Egypt established a special force unit known as the Fedayeen. It led to the escalation of hostilities over the Israeli-Egyptian border and eventually contributed to the 1956 Suez War.
In mid 1956, The Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser, encouraged by support from the Soviet Union, nationalized the Suez Canal. In response, United Kingdom and France planned Operation Musketeer (1956) aiming at regaining Western control of the Suez Canal and removing the Egyptian president Nasser. In late 1956, the bellicosity of recent Arab statements prompted Israel to remove the threat of the concentrated Egyptian forces in the Sinai, and Israel invaded the Egyptian Sinai peninsula. Other Israeli aims were elimination of the Fedayeen incursions into Israel that made life unbearable for its southern population, and opening the blockaded Straits of Tiran for Israeli ships. Israeli armour, equipped with tanks, such as M4 Sherman and AMX-13 quickly defeated the Egyptian forces and took control over the Sinai within a few days. As agreed, within a couple of days, Britain and France invaded too and recaptured the canal. Britain, France and Israel withdrew from Sinai under international pressure, particularly by the United States. But the IDF had achieved numerous goals; the borders dramatically tranquilized, Nasser promised to disband the Fedayeen, the Straits of Tiran were once again opened to Israeli ships and maybe most important of all, Israel had illustrated its military strength. The successful war elevated the reputation of the IDF and contributed highly to the morale of the soldiers.
1956–1966
Following the successful campaign in Sinai, the IDF used this relatively quiet decade to arm on a great scale and increase military professionalism. The main suppliers of weapons was France, which provided Israel rifles, tanks and jet fighters, including the Dassault Mirage III. The peak of France's assistance was the construction of the Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona in 1960.
Six-Day War
By 1966, Israeli-Arab relations had deteriorated to the point of actual battles taking place between Israeli and Arab forces. In 1967, Egypt expelled UN peacekeepers, stationed in the Sinai Peninsula since 1957, and announced a partial blockade of Israel's access to the Red Sea. In May 1967 a number of Arab states began to mobilize their forces. Israel saw these actions as a casus belli.
On the morning of 5 June 1967, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) launched a massive airstrike that destroyed the majority of the Egyptian air force on the ground. By noon, the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian air forces, with about 450 aircraft, were annihilated. This strike was code-named Operation Focus, Mivtza Moked.
The Egyptians persuaded Syria and Jordan to join the war by lying to them and reporting on "amazing victories" at Sinai. The two Arab countries reluctantly joined the war, Jordan by shelling the Israeli part of Jerusalem and Syria by entering Israel from the Golan Heights.
Meanwhile, the IDF ground forces quickly overran the Egyptian army in Sinai and were about to reach Alexandria. About 15,000 Egyptian soldiers were killed, 4482 fell into captivity and 80% of the Egyptian tanks were destroyed. 338 Israeli were killed in Sinai and of Israel's losses there were about 63 tanks.
All of the Sinai peninsula was captured. The IDF later captured the Golan Heights from the Syrians and the West Bank from Jordan.
On 7 June Israeli troops (the Harel unit; Yerushalmi unit; and elite paratroopers accompanied by tanks) captured the Old City of Jerusalem The conquest of the Western Wall and Temple Mount was considered as the highlights of the war and a dramatic and emotional peak by the Israeli people. The reunification of east and west Jerusalem as one city under Jewish control were celebrated widely in Israel.
The Six-Day War had great consequences for the state of Israel and the IDF. In six days Israel had defeated three Arab armies – Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Yitzhak Rabin, Moshe Dayan, Israel Tal, Moshe Peled and Mordechai Gur were admired by the public as "war heroes" while the IAF pilots won unprecedented prestige and were considered to be "the best pilots in the world" (even today, the IAF is considered to be one of the most competent air forces in the world).
War of Attrition
Israel's alleged pre-emptive strike in the Six Day War resulted in a French embargo banning all weapon sales to Israel. Israel overcame the embargo by finding other suppliers (such as the United States) and developing and making its own weapons. A strategic decision was made then to make an Israeli battle tank, an Israeli fighter jet, and an Israeli warship – for example: the Kfir fighter jet and the Merkava tank.
After the Six-Day War was over, IDF outposts on the Suez Canal were shelled by the Egyptian army. It was a long and bitter war that ended after three years due to Israeli air superiority.
There were also frictions and battles with Syrian forces on the northern border. In the Israeli reprisal operation ("Three Day Battles" 24–27 June 1970) about 350 Syrian soldiers were killed.
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the "10th of Ramadan War" in Arab countries, tempered Israeli confidence created after the victory of the Six-Day War. This time, Jordan stayed out and wasn't involved in the war. The war opened on 6 October 1973 on Yom Kippur, the holiest Jewish holiday.
Egypt and Syria attempted to regain the territory Israel had acquired in the Six-Day War. Their armies launched a joint surprise attack on the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday (the most sacred Jewish day of all in which each Jew must atone for his sins, pray and avoid eating and drinking) – the Syrian forces attacking fortifications in the Golan Heights and the Egyptian forces attacking fortifications around the Suez Canal and on the Sinai Peninsula. The troops inflicted heavy casualties on the Israeli army. After three weeks of fighting, though, and with U.S. air-lifted reinforcements of weapons and equipment (first shipment arrived on 9 October 1973), the IDF pushed the Syrian forces beyond the original lines.