Israel Defense Forces

The IDF is established by order of the provisional government on 31 May 1948, built on the Haganah's structure and absorbing the Irgun, Lehi, and Palmach into a single command under civilian authority — a process that requires the Altalena confrontation and the dissolution of the Palmach's separate leadership. Ben-Gurion designs it around near-universal conscription of men and women, a small standing force backed by a large reserve system, and a deliberately apolitical officer corps, making it the state's principal instrument of social integration as well as its army. It fights in every major conflict from 1948 onward and develops a doctrine shaped by the country's lack of strategic depth: transferring war to enemy territory quickly, air superiority, and preemption. Its centrality to Israeli society makes military service a formative common experience and makes questions of who serves — and who does not — permanently political.