Abstract
Israel is a democratic republic and operates under the parliamentary system. Executive power is exercised by the prime minister and the government. It was founded in 1948.The Israeli defence forces, Tsahal, were also created in 1948, with the professionalisation of several paramilitary underground armies like the Haganah or the Irgoun. These self defence militias aimed at protecting the Jewish emigrants at the beginning of the 20th century (in application of the sionist doctrine). This characteristic makes the particularity of Tsahal: the army has strong links with the population and has been very influenced by the sionist theories. As many armies in the world, the first role of Tsahal is protect the country from the external attacks. Internal security is the other role of Tsahal (growing risk of terrorism)
A third role of Tsahal is to foster the national cohesion. Observing the several roles of Tsahal, we can understand the very specificity of the IDF (Israeli defence forces). But, are there real democratic civil-military relations in Israel? And if not, why during the first sixty years of their history the IDF never overtly challenged the authority of the civilian government? We will see that although Tsahal has kept all the time a very pre-eminent role in Israeli life and politics there are several mechanisms of control which protect the democratic process.
