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Israel Has Become a Laboratory for Militaries across the Globe
(Wall Street Journal) Dan Senor - Israel is a country of eight million people that is surrounded by enemies who would like to see it wiped off the map: Hizbullah to the north, Hamas to the south, plus Assad's regime, Islamic State and Iran to the east. Yet this tiny nation has also built an air force, anti-missile defense system and intelligence apparatus that is revered around the world - and relied on by the U.S. military. And it's done it with a minuscule fraction of the budget available to larger nations. Because of its hostile neighborhood, Israel has had the unlucky distinction of being the first target of the newest terrorist innovations - which has forced it to become a kind of laboratory for militaries across the globe. Elite Israeli commando units conducted the first successful airline hostage rescue in 1972, and then again at Entebbe in 1976. America's Delta Force was founded partly in response to what the U.S. learned from the IDF's operation in Uganda. The writer is co-author of Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle.