[lgieron]

> I would assume mainly because the polish word for a tank is still a tank ;)

The word is actually 'czołg'.

My assumption is that Polish was used because a significant part of Israeli Jews came to Israel from Poland (or former Polish territories grabbed by USSR after WW II), so they were familiar with the language.

[dogma1138]

By 67 most Jews in Israel of Polish decent would've been 3rd and 2nd generation those who weren't would be holocaust survivors which were exempt from any type of military service. Euro-Aemrican Jews make up less than a 3rd of the current Jewish population of Israel while Polish Jews were quite a significant part of the early Jewish immigration (late 1800's to 1920-30's till the Brits closed off Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine) there weren't a significant portion afterwards as not that many were left after WW2 (out of about 3M polish Jews only 100,000 survived in Poland after the war with about 150,000 more who've managed to escape eastwards, under the communist rule they weren't allowed to leave, in the 50's the USSR permitted about 30,000 Jews to immigrate to Israel but from then until 1989 pretty much no one could leave).