As Modi visits, things you should know about Israel

NEW DELHI The Israeli Defence Forces have a formidable military record. Their air force pilots, for example, regularly defeat other elite air units in global match-ups. Mossad is rated as among the most effective and lethal intelligence agencies going around. But there are other elements of Israel’s defence skills, especially in technology, that are less well-known.

Talpiot: An Israel military training programme which recruits youngsters who show a combination of scientific and leadership ability. They provide the brainpower undergirding Israel’s military research and development success. Picked as high school graduates, Talpiot candidates are trained in physics and mathematics even while undergoing military training in all service branches.

Krav Maga: The Israelis have their own martial arts. Krav Maga was invented by a German Jewish boxer after the Holocaust to help ordinary people resist physical capture. Designed to allow even old people to fight back, Krav Maga plays on a person’s natural instincts and urges a victim to use objects and the surrounding environment to help in the fight.

Drones: The first military use of unmanned aerial vehicles was by the Israeli military in the Yom Kippur War. Their inventor, Baghdad-born Israeli Abrahem Karem, later developed a series of drones including Amber, the precursor to the most famous US armed drone, the Predator. Karem is today settled in the US where he has earned the title “dronefather”. India has bought so many that its fleet of Israelimade drones is larger than Israel’s own fleet.

Anti-missile systems: The Israelis have developed a number of remarkable anti-missile defence systems. The Iron Dome, designed to protect towns from even low projectiles like mortars, has an interception rate of 87%. Israel is working on a number of anti-ballistic missile systems: the Arrow and David’s Sling plus the laser-based Iron Beam. India is the main partner for the Barak anti-missile ship defence system.

Kidon: Literally the Hebrew word for “tip of the spear”, the kidon are Mossad’s famed trained assassination teams. Though they largely operate in West Asia, the kidon have struck across the world. On a few occasions, they have even kidnapped or killed on behalf of a third government when requested by the Israeli authorities. Senior Israeli officials privately speak of a success rate of above 80%.