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  • Israel's Edge

  • The Story of the IDF's Most Elite Unit - Talpiot
  • Written by: Jason Gewirtz
  • Narrated by: Shlomo Zacks
  • Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
  • 3.3 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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Israel's Edge

Written by: Jason Gewirtz
Narrated by: Shlomo Zacks
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Publisher's Summary

How will Israel keep its strategic edge over an increasingly dangerous Iran? Israel has been preparing for this day by creating a special and secretive IDF unit called Talpiot.

Instead of being trained to fight, the few soldiers each year selected for Talpiot are taught how to think. In order to join this unit they have to commit to being in the army for 10 years, rather than the three years a normal soldier serves.

Talpiots are taught advanced level physics, math, and computer science as they train with soldiers from every other branch of the IDF. The result: young men and women become research and development machines. Talpiots have developed battle ready weapons that only Israel's top military officers and political leaders know about. They have also dramatically improved many of the weapons already in Israel's arsenal.

Talpiot has been tasked with keeping Israel a generation ahead of a rapidly strengthening and technologically capable Iran. Talpiots contribute to all of the areas that will be most important to the IDF as Iran becomes even more powerful including missile technology, anti-missile defense, cyber-warfare, intelligence, satellite technology and high powered imaging. Talpiot soldiers have also been a major factor in the never ending fight against Israel's other enemies and many have left the R&D lab to fly fighter planes, serve in the field as commanders of elite army ground units and at sea commanding Israel's fleet of naval ships.

After leaving the army, Talpiots have become a major force in the Israeli economy, developing some of Israel's most famous and powerful companies.

Israel's Edge contains dozens of interviews with Talpiot graduates and some of the early founders of the program. It explains Talpiot's highly successful recruiting methods and discloses many of the secrets of the program's success.

©2016 Jason Gewirtz (P)2017 Jason Gewirtz

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Interesting, but wish it presented a big picture

I'm of two minds about this book. The concept of Talpiot is compelling and something the world should learn from. However, I don't feel Gewirtz made his telling of the formation and success of this unit compelling at all. I would have liked to read more about how Talpiot rose to its strength, the politics behind the unit, and how Talpiot strengthens Israel. While there is certainly some of that in this book, 75% of the book are mini-biographies of Talpiot graduates. While some of these are interesting, there were simply too many, and the book got boring. Instead of reading the full book, you can get just as much out of reading the first few chapters on its history, and the last chapter. #Audible1

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