Why do I only see Israelis in the news with Ar-15/M-16/M-4 family of weapons?  I thought they were partial to the Galil in 7.62 or 5.56.  How pleased are they with the performance of them?

I saw a reservist with a folding stock Galil in the paper yesterday. Part of the conditions of the US aid they reseive is they have to spend most of it on American goods.

Hence the AR's and M113's you see.

I wonder where the Palestinians are getting their AR's.

Quoted: I wonder where the Palestinians are getting their AR's.

Mostly from US, when Bill Clinton agreed to set up the Palistinian police and security forces.

Also I heard somewhere that the M-16 series weapons are cheaper then the indigenusly produced Galil. That and the aid money must be spent in the US. LOL, that's why they are having the Tavor made here.

The word I have is .. "The AR 15/M-16 simply weighs less than a Galil"..

If you had to carry a weapon all day in an urban environment, you could do a lot worse than an AR-15/M-16..

Meplat-

Although I dont much care for Israel's policies and attitude, I do respect the hell out of their equiptment and troops.

I've maintained several long-distance friendships with fellow soldiers throught the world, from the PRC to the UK, to Israel. After reading this thread I gave an old girlfriend a call who is currently married to an IDF tanker (warms my heart, brother tankers) and chatted him up about their weapons deployment.

It seems that the Galil series weapons are being held in reserve for 'external' conflict. Much of the IDF that you see fighting currently is their version of our National Guard. Just the same as many of our Rangers in Afghanistan are using M-4s, and most of the rest of us use M-16s, the Israeli Army uses a lot of Galils still, and the IDF uses the Armalite designs.

There is another reason- the IAI is currently re-tooling away from the Galil and towrards the Tavor series bullpup, as well as a different series weapon, of which I cant remember. The Armalite rifles are being used as an intermediary in many cases until Tavors, etc etc, can be issued. If this is the same case the IAF had with the Lavi some years ago, we may see Israeli troops fighting with Armalites for some time...for every success the IAI has had, they've had some spectacular failures as well...

Anyone know about that new .30 Carbine caliber weapon the IDF is experimenting with? Real wild looking gun...I'd love to get my hands on one.


Amir.

the AK like .30 carbine Cal. gun is the "Magar" (or something like that)...the barrel is only 7-9 inches so other than reliable underpowered gun I dont see much use for it...Mostly in use by police and military police ath this time.

Annother reason why the Israelis use the M16A1 systems is that they get our older surplus for a song...as little as 25 dollars a rifle + spare parts at one time. That plus the abnove mentioned clauses in the military "aid" keeps Israels armes industry working for the U.S. ( we exchange R&D ) rather than competing againsted in the world arms market.

 Recently Israeli Military Industries laid off a whole bunch of workers when it was anounced the Tavor would be produced in the U.S. of A.

Another short shighted, lame and foolish action from Israels famed leadership...

try this page.
www.isayeret.com
it's the israeli special forces web site.
lotsa cool pics, also interesting info, keep in mind that a lot of it is translated (poorly)

Izzy- only as stupid as the US contracting out to Belgium for all the new M-16s we buy.

The whole matrix of the region is due to change very, very soon. The wealthy Arab oil-dictators are living on very borrowed time, and the destabalization of even countries like Saudi Arabia is under way. The historical prescident shows that power and propultion technology is a very dynamic thing, and already the vast consumers of fossil fuel have begun seeking alternate sources.

Man yearns to be free, and Arabs are no different. Their dicators (sheiks, etc) may be arrogant ignorant sand-n!@@ers but with an ever growing, ever enlightened populations in nations such as Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey (no matter how much the Turks wish to be thought of as European) will no longer stand for their elite rulers corrupting their cultures and supporting these bass-ackwards groups like Al-Quida. Muslim culture isnt being 'ruined' by Westernism, Muslim culture isnt so weak that it will crumble in the modern world. It is difficult to stay faithful in the modern world, but not impossible, this is true of all religions though, ask any young Morman, conservative Christian, or orthodox Jew.

No, some day and soon, the oil barrons will loose their source of power, and the masses in the middle east will realize that 'fundamentalists' are ruining the Arab world, not westerners. And when that day comes, Israel will have to re-define its national identity.

Rant off.