XDA

With focused raids on Hezbollah strongholds by tank supported IDF troops about to become a broader bunker to bunker search for rockets, perhaps a brief history of Israel tanks is in order.

In the war declared by 5 surrounding Arab nations immediately upon Israel becoming a nation (under a UN mandate) Israel only had the tanks it could scrounge on the after WWII market which were mostly, but by a slim margin, the hopelessly obsolete M-4 Sherman (but better than nothing). By the time the Arabs felt like another ass-kicking in 1956 (mainly in the Sinai), the Israelis had both the M-4 Super Sherman (still only just slightly better than nothing) and the French AMX-13, pictured below
France then stopped selling arms to Israel so by the Six-Day War in 1967, the Israelis were using our M-48s and M-60s as well as the pretty decent Centurion tank from England. The Israelis began a program after that war ended to build the Centurion in Israel, where it was called the Sho't. Lefties in England (like the lefties in France before them) forced that deal to falter, but apparently the Israelis kept the blueprints even after they lost the license. Below and to the right is a British centurion in the Gulf of Aden.


During the Yom Kippur war in 1973, when the Russian anti tank weapons the Arabs had were knocking out Israeli tank after tank, we were shipping emergency M-60 Patton tanks to keep Israel from being overrun by Egyptian and Syrian forces using the Russian T-55s and T-62s.

I recall a boisterous young Israeli spending several nights with one of the few round heeled girls in my 'dorm' at college in 1974. He effectively recounted to me the terror he felt in his tank under RPG and Sagger attack, and his thanks to the United States for the needed replacements.

Having had two suppliers dry up on them, the Israelis decided that producing their own tanks would be a good idea and under the able leadership of Aluf 'Talik' Israel Tal, the result was the Merkava (Chariot) now in the Mark 4 version. Given the history above, it is no surprise that it looks a lot like the Centurion tank (with a little AMX-13 slimming in the turret) but better. Below center is an earlier model Merkava, probably a Mark 2

Below and to the right is a Merkava Mark 4 and an armored Cat D-9 rolling past the, as usual, totally ineffective UN Peace Keeping forces outpost.

I hope the blue helmets at least got to watch the show of the Katusha launches from this beautiful watch-tower, as they did absolutely nothing to stop the sporadic barrages nor anything to carry out UN resolution 1559 to disarm Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Not that I'm bitter or anything.