They are well trained and very dedicated. They aren't on the same moral leash as an American soldier so that makes them very dangerous.

the israelis are a very ingenius nation. they have their own home grown mbt and there soldiers appear very motiviated. if the israelis were to be in a major conflict, they would definitly be a force not to be taken lightly.

Originally Posted by mmarsh

I would like to see how the Isrealis fair against a more modern military, espically one where the enemy would have a modern air force, one of the Western European countries for example would be a handful for the Isrealis.

Since WWII there hasn't been much action between two militaries who are on equal terms. It is just not something that happens anymore (save in Africa where you have guys shooting each other with old AKs and RPGs but you get the point.....). I don't see any wars taking place in the near future between two modern nations, but things can change and change quick.

Well a few points to consider:

IAF is one of the most advanced air forces in the world....It has very advanced aircraft and weapons, which are either produced in israel(ex:Python 5), or uprated in Israel(ex:F16I Sufa). During the years the IAF faced foreighn airforces(RAF, Soviet Air Force), and won those encounters....

While it is true that israels land forces never fought a stronger opponent than Egypt or Syria, they did fight with lesser equippment than the arabs and won every time.

Anyone who says a europian army could beat the IDF should look around for noumbers on tanks, AFVs, and Israels casualty rate against arabs using better weapons.....And reconsider....

The worst examples of IDF conflicts still ended with 1:10 or at the worst 1:5 casualty rate....

When Israel became a country, its population was very smal, IDF was combined from several very small resistance groups and they had a smal amount of weapons, mostly smal firearms and few crapy airplanes (not combat airplanes, maybe few Piper Cobb's) and still they stopped a full scale military surprise attack from 5 arab countries, those countries had a well orgenaized, well trained and well equipted armies. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt. They attacked Israel from 3 directions, and not only that Israel won, but also captured some land from those countries. The reason that the arab countries today have a very poor, low tech and weak army is because Israel destroyed their big armies over the years.
As an IAF soldier I can say one thing, if some big Europian country will send its army to fight againts IDF, Israel will be outnumbered, and maybe it will lose, but I promise you, this European country completley lose its army.