Jason Gewirtz - Israel’s Edge: The Story of Talpiot, the Idf’s Most Elite Unit

Thank You for Downloading this Gefen Publishing House Ebook.

Sign up for our free weekly newsletter and get special offers on exciting new titles about Israel, Judaism and the Jewish People.

To sign up click here!

Copyright Jason Gewirtz
Jerusalem 2016/5776

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without express written permission from the publishers.

Cover Design: Joe Potter
Typesetting: Irit Nachum

ISBN: 978-965-229-713-6

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Gefen Publishing House Ltd.
6 Hatzvi Street
Jerusalem 94386, Israel
972-2-538-0247

Gefen Books
11 Edison Place
Springfield, NJ 07081
516-593-1234

www.gefenpublishing.com

Printed in Israel Send for our free catalog

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gewirtz, Jason, author.

Title: Israels edge : Talpiot, the IDFs most elite unit / Jason Gewirtz.

Description: Jerusalem : Gefen Publishing House Ltd., [2015]

Identifiers: LCCN 2015017950 | ISBN 9789652297136

Subjects: LCSH: Tokhnit Talpiyot (Israel) | Israel. Tseva haganah le-Yi?sra?elOfficersTraining of.

Classification: LCC U660.I75 G49 2015 | DDC 355.3/43dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015017950

This book is dedicated to:

My father, the most honorable person Ive ever known

My mother, the most selfless person Ive ever known

My brother, the strongest person Ive ever known

My wife, the most caring and wonderful person Ive ever known

My two girlsbe whoever you want to be, but be good and do good

To all of Talpiots past and future graduates, and to all the men and women who have served in the Israeli army; you not only guard a nations border, you protect a people.

Each year fifty thousand Israelis reach draft age. And each year staffers in the Israel Defense Forces manpower offices start pointing young men and women in different directions.

To tank units. To the infantry. To the air force. To the navy. To artillery divisions. To special units designed to educate the underprivileged. To pioneering units, engineering, intelligence; the list goes on and on. Men are assigned to units for at least the next three years; women, at least the next twenty months.

This is a country that needs a strong fighting force perhaps more than any nation in the world, and the army is idolized by its youth. In the years before their induction, motivated Israeli teenagers jockey for position, boosting their high school grades and preparing for special IDF induction tests. Hoping to earn invitations to enlist in the units theyve set their sights on, thousands of young Israelis even sign up for physical fitness coaching and private pre-army training in order to prepare themselves for the rigorous physical IDF exams that will decide who is sent where.

It used to be the air force that had first pick of these capable young men and women. They needed the brightest and most physically fit to fly complicated fighter jets, large transport planes and heavily armed silent attack helicopters the fighting force that makes up the long arm of the Israeli Air Force. It was rare that anyone would say no to the air force. Like American boys who dreamed of becoming a baseball star, many Israeli boys hoped to grow up and serve their country by piloting an F16.

If the air force wasnt your goal, or if your eyesight wasnt perfect, another highly desired spot was a place in Israels celebrated elite commando units such as Sayeret Matkal or the paratroopers, with their distinctive red boots that symbolize to everyone just how tough you are and how dedicated you are to your country.

But in 1979 something began to change. While the air force and top ground units were still, and always will be, a very high priority for Israel, another unit a secret unit took over as top priority for the IDF.

Soldiers picked for this unit arent expected to fight like ordinary soldiers. Instead, they are expected to learn. They are selected for an ultra-competitive, grueling, fast-paced program designed to give them the best educational and military training possible.

Their teachers are some of the worlds top minds in mathematics, physics and computer science, as well as some of Israels top strategic leaders from the army, navy and air force. The end game is to produce soldiers with great military and scientific backgrounds who are trained to think like nobody else in the world.

They do not enlist like every other soldier in the IDF for three years or twenty months. They sign up for a full decade. Because the program is so intense, almost one in four of these bright minds originally selected wont make it through the program.

Graduates of the unit are expected to accumulate massive amounts of knowledge and apply it directly to help Israels deterrence shield, to help Israels intelligence services and to make the army, navy and air force stronger in any conflict.

This small, select group is expected to change the way Israel does battle. The country is counting on them to give the Israel Defense Forces an eternal edge over its enemies by developing the weapons and military hardware of the future.

Since this unit became a part of the IDF, no other group of soldiers has had such a profound impact on Israel on Israels defense doctrine, on how Israels weapons are developed and how theyre used.

The military advantage these special graduates gave Israel didnt end when their army service was over. Those who left the army often took what they did for the IDF and applied it to the Israeli economy, creating hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth and tens of thousands of jobs in Israel and beyond. They have dramatically helped give Israel an edge on the battlefield and in global business.

This is their story, the story of Talpiot.

O ctober 1973: The source tells his Mossad handler in London that war between Israel and its Arab neighbors is imminent. Hes been wrong before, but with all of the other signs on the Syrian and Egyptian sides of the border, it looks like this could be the real thing.

Agents from Britain to Israel are buzzing as they work their way up the chain to the director of the Mossad, Zvi Zamir. He flies to London immediately to meet with the source a man now believed to be Ashraf Marwan, the son-in-law of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Mossad and Israels other intelligence agencies had their doubts about the source, suspecting him of being a double agent. To this day the truth has not been revealed.

Zamir believes the information is credible and hopes the wheels of Israels war machine will begin to move forward. He is able to convince Israels Prime Minister Golda Meir and Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan of the impending attack.

Despite having that crucial information, Israels leadership decides not to act fearing it will be blamed for firing the first shot and that Israel will thus lose critical support from the United States. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has warned Israels leaders including Prime Minister Meir that if war should break out, Israel had best make sure it isnt the one who starts the fighting.