Israel plans on opening "its most secret and prestigious hi-tech courses to teenage Jews from the Diaspora," The Jerusalem Post reports:
> *The program, called Talpiot, is the longest course in the IDF. Its participants are chosen from a pool of highly-motivated youth who specialize in hard sciences such as physics and mathematics. The soldiers, who all become officers, undergo more than three years of training - during which time they receive a degree in both physics and mathematics - and then join the Defense Ministry's Research and Development Directorate or highly-classified units in the air force. *
Talpiot is designed as an elite training program focused on defense technology, as David Eshel writes:
> After the hard fought and hard won Yom Kippur War of 1973, its military leadership was looking for new approaches to train its officers. The Talpiot program was established as the Israel Defense Forces elite brainpower summit, tasked with changing the language of technological warfare.
Joining is more than signing on the dotting line: you have to learn Hebrew and obtain citizenship.
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