page_title: Israeli Ground Forces
section_title: Mission
hierarchical_section_title: Israeli Ground Forces / Mission
caption_attribution_description: English: IDF soldier prays with tefillin in the 2006 Lebanon War after the Battle of Bint Jbeil, photographed by Yoav Lemmer. The officer is Lieutenant Asael Lubotzky from the esteemed Golani Infantry Brigade. He was seriously wounded in the war. Dr. Lubotzky's story was published in the book From the Wilderness and Lebanon by Yedioth Ahronoth recounting his personal experiences from the Second Lebanon War. The picture appears on the front cover of the book in Hebrew and on the translation to English - From the Wilderness and Lebanon by Koren Publishers Jerusalem. The photograph has become an inspiration for artists, and artworks (such as Brothers in Arms) and portraits[1] of the praying soldier were drawn. עברית: ד"ר עשהאל לובוצקי. תמונה שצולמה ללא ידיעתו במהלך מלחמת לבנון השנייה לאחר קרב בינת ג'בייל בעת שירותו כקצין בגולני על ידי הצלם יואב למר עבור סוכנות עיתונות צרפתית. סיפורו של לובוצקי פורסם בספר מן המדבר והלבנון. התמונה מופיעה על כריכת הספר בעברית וכן על תרגומו לאנגלית. התמונה היוותה השראה ליוצרים, ובעקבותיה צוירו יצירות אמנות ודיוקנים של הקצין מתפלל.[2] [3]
context_page_description: The Israeli Ground Forces are the ground forces of the Israel Defense Forces. As part of the military wing of the Israeli security forces, the ground forces have no civilian jurisdiction within Israel. The commander is the General Officer Commanding with the rank of Major General, the Mazi, subordinate to the Chief of General Staff.
  An order from Defense Minister David Ben-Gurion on 26 May 1948 officially set up the Israel Defense Forces as a conscript army formed out of the paramilitary group Haganah, incorporating the militant groups Irgun and Lehi. The Ground Forces have served in all the country's major military operations—including the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, 1956 Suez Crisis, 1967 Six-Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, 1976 Operation Entebbe, 1982 Lebanon War, 1987–1993 First Intifada, 2000–2005 Second Intifada, 2006 Lebanon War, and the Gaza War. While originally the IDF operated on three fronts—against Lebanon and Syria in the north, Jordan and Iraq in the east, and Egypt in the south—after the 1979 Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty, it has concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories, including the First and the Second Intifada.
context_section_description: The IDF's mission is to "defend the existence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the state of Israel. To protect the inhabitants of Israel and to combat all forms of terrorism which threaten the daily life."
  The Israeli military's primary principles derive from Israel's need to combat numerically superior opponents. One such principle, is the concept that Israel cannot afford to lose a single war. The IDF believes that this is possible if it can rapidly mobilize troops to insure that they engage the enemy in enemy territory. In the 21st Century, various nonconventional threats including terrorist organizations, subterranean infrastructure operated by Hamas, etc. have forced the IDF to modify its official defense doctrine.
caption: IDF soldier, Asael lubotzky prays with tefillin.
exif: {}