Givati Brigade soldiers during a commando training exercise. Photos: Doron Keren, IDF Spokesperson

Givati Brigade soldiers during a commando training exercise.

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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 International Training Branch was formed. As of today, the Branch is under the leadership of Lt. Col. Tal Lazaros. 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. Lazaros. "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 International 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 Leon, 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. Lazaros 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 International 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. Lazaros. 

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. Leon 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. Lazaros 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. Lazaros. "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 International 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.