http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BadassIsraeli

Jon Stewart, The Daily Show "They're not the 'Oh, let me help you with your taxes' Jews. They're the 'Can you hold my machine gun while I take a leak' Jews. It's a different culture."

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Israelis are badass. No ifs, ands, or buts. They are a Proud Warrior Nation and it is a national law that each one must have a Moment of Awesome on his Bar Mitzvah or her Bat Mitzvah. The polite softspoken Israeli with glasses is a myth. If one miraculously appears, you can count on him being a Badass Bookworm. If an Israeli is a villain you can count on him being something cool like an Arms Dealer or an assassin. Every female Israeli is an Action Girl Squadette who always looks great in her combat fatigues and beret with her Uzi jauntily slung over her shoulder. Every male Israeli is an Ace Pilot, or a spy for the Mossad (their other intelligence agencies are so secretive, Hollywood hasn't heard of them; and anyway no one can beat that name for coolness). The Israel Defense Forces do not have a single Obstructive Bureaucrat like, oh, every other army in the entire world. It is too much of a Badass Army.

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The above is partial Truth in Television, since the IDF maintains a more independent, less regimented mode of operation than many militaries, training their units to think on their feet (sometimes, though, the army does disagree: e.g. the case of Elor Azaria). This, however, also leads to the IDF making mistakes that a more regimented army wouldn't. Oh, and it definitely does have its fair share of Obstructive Bureaucrats (any Israeli can tell you about how horribly inefficient the IDF can be), mostly in the form of disgruntled 19-year-olds.

Israeli-born Jews' preferred nickname for themselves evokes the same trope. Tsabar (pl. tsabarim) — borrowed into English as "sabra" — are cactus fruits, soft and sweet on the inside, but tough, thorny and nigh impenetrable outside.

Fun Fact: "Israel" literally translates to "wrestles with God", after Jacob did just that, and almost won!

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Related to Israelis with Infrared Missiles. Can loosely apply to non-Israeli Jewish characters who are as tough as shoe leather, at least if their Jewishness is played up enough. Can often be Truth in Television too, as evidenced below.

Examples:

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Comic Books

Films — Live-Action

Literature

Live-Action TV

Music

Texas country singer James McMurtry's "Choctaw Bingo" contains the lyric: "...and a Desert Eagle, that's one great big ol' pistol/I mean, .50 caliber made by badass Hebrews..."

Myths & Religion

Professional Wrestling

GOLDBERG. While born in the U.S., he is openly and proudly Jewish and certainly gave off a badass vibe during his big undefeated streak in WCW in 1997-1998. He even considered calling himself "Mossad" before going with his own name. He was the first wrestler to ever kick out of "The Laughing Man" Hugh Morrus' No Laughing Matter moonsault. He was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.

Video Games

During the training mission in Hitman: Codename 47, the main character has a chance to try out an Uzi, the voice over the loudspeaker notes that it" "must be a fine weapon if the Israelis use it with such zeal".

In the Rainbow Six series, Ayana Yacoby is portrayed as a upper to top tier special forces commando, and in the story driven Lockdown shown to be not only badass, but bitchy as well.

The Deus Ex series has a few. The first game has Russo-Israeli UNATCO agent Anna Navarre, while the prequel features Tyrant leader Jaron Namir and Belltower commander Netanya Keitner.

Web Original

Subverted, if not outright averted in The Salvation War, as the author has a far more negative view of the Israeli military qualitatively (not morally): an Israeli helicopter raid to take the Minos Gate is successful (though with unfortunate collateral damage), but he Israeli army is regarded by other countries' armies as brave to a fault but reckless (with both driving and fire discipline), and the Israeli Navy is outright dangerously incompetent. Basically all the badassery isn't worth a damn when that attitude led to, in trying to avoid Rear-Echelon Motherfuckers (REMFs), getting rid of the ethic needed for seemingly "unmanly" staff work... like keeping track of your own nuclear submarine! According to a more properly-trained general at the Israeli central headquarters, no one would have found it plausible if it were written fiction, yet here it was happening before his very eyes. According to him (and the author out-of-character), the USS Liberty incident was due to a previous catastrophic failure on the Israeli Navy's part.



Western Animation

Real Life