The U.S. military has been sending elite forces to Israel for training in counter-insurgency missions in Afghanistan. The training has been with the Israel Army in such areas as urban warfare, hand-to-hand combat and medical evacuation.
'All cooperation that has to do with imparting shared knowledge is accepted as a blessing,' Israel Army Lt. Col. Tal Lazros said.
In July 2010, Israel and the U.S. military held one of their largest ground force exercises. The Marine Corps sent more than 200 soldiers for three weeks of training to prepare for CI operations in Afghanistan. Much of the training took place at the Army's CI center at Tse'elim. Tse'elim hosts the Mala Urban Warfare Training Center.
'They are really disciplined,' Israeli Cpl. Oren Gordan, who participated in the Marine exercise, said.
Officials said the U.S. military has concluded that Israel served as a suitable training ground for the mission in Afghanistan. They cited topography and climate similar to Afghanistan as well as modern infrastructure and a comfortable environment for Westerners.
'This facility is excellently built,' Marine Brig. Gen. Paul Brier, commander of the force in Europe, said. 'We are used to using the facilities in California and it's great to try new facilities. Our techniques are similar, but we are learning new ways to do things.'
During the Marine training exercise, Israeli and U.S. ground forces marched nine kilometers for most of the night. The two battalions reached the outskirts of a mock village and staged an attack that included mortars and light weapons fire.
'It was my decision, as well as the decision of the American platoon commander, to complicate the training and be able to see if we could successfully work together,' Lt. Oren Gil, commander of the Israeli battalion, said.
The assault highlighted Israeli CI methods as well as the difficulties in joint ground operations. One difficulty was bridging the language gap; another was the differing methods of battle.
'The biggest fear we had was that the Marines wouldn't be able to understand us,' a senior Israeli officer said. 'So from this perspective, it was a very big success.'
Officials said other Western militaries have also sought to use Israel as a training ground for the NATO mission in Afghanistan. In July, the German Air Force spent three weeks learning how to use their new Heron-1 unmanned aerial vehicle acquired for its contingent in Afghanistan.
'Once you were the only country fighting in urban environments and the rest of the world generally did not,' Lazros said 'But today there are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for example, and there are a lot of lessons we can learn from each other.'" (source)
