Ah grasshopper...glad you asked.
It is the 'grass is always greener syndrome' and in this case, sad to say, a lot of Americans believe that if something has "Israeli" stamped on it, it must be the be all and end all of the known world.
This stems from the mistaken belief that the Israelis are God's gift to the planet in the field of combat because their tiny nation has been surrounded by the enemy for a long time, their performance in the six day war, and their ongoing struggle against terrorism including their rigorous security measures with regards to airline security.
When you peel back the layers however all is not as it seems.
To whit...
I don't rate them in combat at all. There hasn't been anytime in history I'm aware of when they've fought well (more on the six day war in a moment) against anyone worth a damn. Please elaborate if you can find an instance...I'm prepared to admit I'm wrong.
Re the six day war...it was won only because of air domination and the planes they used were provided courtesy of us. Without those planes they'd have lost that war hands down.
Re being surrounded and surviving. I don't care unless the enemy you've been beating is someone noteworthy. Again, the arabs have never been famous for anything with regards to warfare except the Germans and the Brits during WWII did recognize them for their disloyalty and general untrustworthiness...I believe the phrase was "they'd sell their own mothers if it would make them money"
If I went out and whooped 4000 people would it matter if they were all seven year old kids? Or would it be more impressive if everyone you dropped was armed and dangerous and a world beater? The Arabs are more reminiscent of the former, not the latter so I'm reserving judgement till they take on someone good.
Want further proof of the above just look at their recent lamentable and dismal performance against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Everyone round the world said "watch out, Israel's gonna kick some arse." I said "bullshit, watch what happens." Sure enough, they left with their tails between their legs and many of their top commanders have had to resign.
How about their security measures that everyone touts as amazing. Sure, but El Al averages fifty flights a week. American carriers are doing thousands every hour. If we only put fifty flights in the air a week nationwide 9/11 wouldn't have happened because we'd have had the luxury of time to screen everyone as they do.
Nope, not impressed by them, and never have been. (Now, I do admire their struggle but there's a huge difference between admiring someone and being impressed by them)
Regarding Krav...yep, very underwhelming. I saw their tapes many times and everyone was raving. I went in with eyes open expecting to see something amazing. What I saw was a left jab, right cross, hook and uppercut from western boxing, a hammerfist from karate/kung fu, some front, groin, side kicks from any basic martial art, some basic ju-jutsu escapes from holds (that are in a thousand books on the subject) and some, frankly, piss poor knife defense, one of which involved kicking someone under the chin brandishing a knife at your belly.
Just as an aside...one of my mates (and I have several who practice and like KM) was in a dispute with them over teaching kids self defense as they don't have much of a kid's program to speak of. They were trying to tell him that he was teaching proprietory KM techniques so he had me lend him copies of my extensive library to prove that EVERY SINGLE TECHNIQUE he was teaching, that they claimed were theirs, were in those books, some of which were printed before Israel was formed in 48.
Now, does that not mean there's no good KM practitioners? Nope, not at all. Ryan Hoover, Ernie Kirk, and Kim Vigsbo spring to mind but, like any art, it's the singer and not the song (to a degree
). Those guys would be good no matter what art you had them practice (in fact, all of them have extensive TMA backgrounds).
So yes, there's no real magic KM technique that isn't featured in a hundred different systems.
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Topic: Commando Krav Maga - Moni Aizik (Read 13730 times)