Britannia Radio

 

The most popular training facility is at the Tze'elim military base, which
has the most advanced urban warfare training facility in the world.

International Commando Teams Train with the IDF in Israel

26 January 2010 , 14:20
Jonatan Urich - IDF Spokesperson's Office
http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/News/today/10/01/2603.htm

It has become routine. A private bus with rolled up curtains enters an IDF
base through back doors. The bus stops and out come the "clients" – small
groups of soldiers and officers, dressed in the dress uniform of their
respective homelands, which they leave for a few days in order to come to
Israel. Armed with their respective mother tongues and with conversational
English, they come in order to learn from the Israelis how to fight the Axis
of Evil. IDF, as a light unto the nations, has been used during the past few
years as the best school in the world for training in urban warfare in
particular and land-based warfare in general.

And so the Sales and Contracts section of the Foreign Training Branch was
formed. As of today, the Branch is under the leadership of Lt. Col. Tal
Lazarus. The Branch markets unique training facilities of the ground forces
to militaries from all over the world. In fact, this is a body that is not
embarrassed to speak about money, but instead acknowledges the contribution
to saving soldiers' lives. "When we are busy in cooperative training
activities and in renting out our unique training facilities which were
built with money received from foreign militaries, I can really see how this
money is invested, at the end of the day, in ceramic ballistic vests for the
infantry soldiers," says Lt. Col. Lazarus. "Every shekel that we earn from
our marketing and sales work is invested back in saving lives. From my
standpoint, this is the basic legitimization for our work here."

Cooperation between militaries, whereby IDF trains foreign militaries within
its facilities, has already been done in past years. It was simply being
done for the most part free of charge. In addition, the client had to speak
directly to the relevant unit it would want to train with, and this was
arranged through the Foreign Relations Department of the IDF. Since the
establishment of the Foreign Training Branch, this is all done in organized
manner, whereby branch personnel encourage the cooperative training by
running an unclassified and official website, by communicating with the
different military attaches, and by creating exceptional marketing
materials.

True Ground Diplomacy

But finances aside, it seems that the main aim of the Branch is true ground
diplomacy. These training situations bring about meetings, without
mediators, between soldiers and officers from the armies of the world and
those of the IDF – and there is no better way to have soldiers bond than to
have them eat from shared field rations. Maj. Limor Laon, head of the
Marketing and Sales Department within the Branch, says that the foreign
trainees in Israel and the coordination delegations for each training
exercise in Israel are invited to a day of touring and familiarization with
the country. "Whether we are talking about a visit in the Yad Vashem
Holocaust Memorial, or a tour of Sderot, we try to bring to them the story
of Israel in the shortest amount of time and on the most personal level.
When they return to their countries, they definitely feel closer to us and
understand the complex daily reality of our lives in Israel and the threats
against us," she hopes. Lt. Col. Lazarus describes tours of Massada, of the
Old City of Jerusalem, of local food places in the "Shuk" marketplace of
Machane Yehuda, all of which were intended "in order to present them with a
full picture of Israeli life, the way it feels from behind the headlines or
statistics."

It is difficult to fully appreciate the significant contribution made by the
Foreign Training Branch's work to international relations, both militarily
and politically. The last cocktail party held by the military attache of a
European country (which for security reasons cannot be mentioned) opened
with a slide show of pictures from a cooperative training exercise with
soldiers from her country and from the IDF. But there is no need for
cocktail parties in order to maintain the tight knit relationship existing
between the Branch and the foreign military attaches. In fact, during this
interview, the officer received a phone call from the military attache of a
Latin American country and the conversation took on an extremely friendly
nature, different from the usual formal conversations between business
partners. While this level of friendliness may be surprising, it is
understood that this is the regular protocol here. The password for this
among Branch personnel is "Warm Training", that is to say, warm, personal
relationships that enable the military participants to feel at home here.

It is no wonder then that the year 2010 is currently overbooked with
foreign military training. As Maj. Laon says: "The fact that one of the
foreign delegations who came here last year with 8 people for 7 days is
coming this year with twice as many people and for approximately 3 weeks,
should tell us something about the quality of the work of the Branch, whose
scope of work grows each year, and which stands as of today as the leader in
training exercises among the different branches."

Training Outside of Israel

An additional business pursuit of the Branch is related to training IDF
soldiers outside of Israel. Before the establishment of the Branch, this was
the responsibility of every unit for itself. As of today, there is a
specific professional and organized body responsible for managing this.

Special emphasis is given to the work of the Alpinists, an IDF unit trained
in severe winter conditions. They have decided that in order to maintain
their high level of fitness, they would need to have some special training
exercises outside of Israel. And so, once a year there is a Search and Ski
Course which takes place in a European country. When the opportunity
presents itself, the Course will also take place in another country, in
order to gain additional experiential training.

Likewise, there are also special Paratroopers' Courses taking place outside
of Israel in order to teach soldiers how to react to different topographical
conditions. "Units interested in special training exercises outside of
Israel approach us and we put them in touch with the relevant officials
using IDF attaches outside of Israel," says Lt. Col. Lazarus.

There is not a proportional relation between import and export of the
training exercises. In general, foreign militaries come to Israel in order
to train here, as Israel is under a constant threat and has dealt with both
full-fledged wars and smaller battles since its establishment. However, even
the training exercises for IDF soldiers outside of Israel serve an important
role in the strengthening of international relations.

Double Benefits

And where do a unit's interests fit in this arrangement? It seems the Branch
descends upon a Unit in one of the IDF bases and forces upon it one of these
special visits for which that unit must organize and prepare. What do the
units receive in return for their efforts made to receive foreign soldiers
for different amounts of time?

From a practical perspective, there is first and foremost the physical
fitness advantage. The basic perspective is not "we will teach you", but
instead, this cooperative training is considered to have double benefits,
for both the IDF and the foreign military. Maj. Laon describes a new weapon
held by one of the militaries that had come for a cooperative training
exercise with the IDF. The IDF itself was at the time receiving this new
weapon. The joint training exercise contributed to the successful absorption
of this new weapon into the IDF, as the foreign military was already
experienced in using it. The IDF has much professional experience, being a
military under constant threat from its neighboring countries, but there is
always something to learn from others.

Likewise, the Branch makes sure to compensate the host units with monetary
incentives. "We try to take care of the units' motivation by earmarking for
them part of the money received from the clients. This isn't a separate IDF
budget, but a piece of the pie given from the Branch to the hosting unit,"
Lt. Col. Lazarus says. However, he makes sure to clarify that even though
there is a "carrot", the IDF does not use a "stick". That is to say, units
that are not interested in participating for any reason are not penalized.

An IDF Base for a Bar Mitzvah Party?

In a time where everything can be bought and sold, I think of the next step.
Maybe something that works well for countries in Latin America or Europe can
also work well for the private sector in Israel. Can an Israeli millionaire
rent out a military base to entertain his son for his Bar Mitzvah
celebration?

The Branch hurries to explain my mistake. "We are not authorized to work
with private bodies. Moreover, it is forbidden to you, as a civilian, to
rent military facilities," says Lt. Col. Lazarus. "The State gives
infrastructure to the IDF for free, for the purpose of training and guarding
the country's borders. That being said, it is forbidden to have
unnecessarily dealings, as that would be a transgression of property law."

So who is actually trained in the unique IDF training facilities? The
cooperative IDF training exercises are not given special characterization,
as it is considered an IDF training exercise in any event. All of the elite
IDF units go through the Branch in order to plan different training
exercises in the various facilities. The most popular training facility is
at the Tze'elim military base, which has the most advanced urban warfare
training facility in the world. With the help of the Foreign Training
Branch, facilities like these will continue serving the IDF and its
counterparts all over the world, to help teach soldiers what they must know,
and to help protect civilians' lives.