Israeli Defence Force Armoured Corps Black Beret.
 

Picked up in Tel Aviv around 1978-80, black beret with bronzed yellow metal badge on red plastic backing.
The manufacturers(?) label, "NESHER" caused confusion to an Israeli badge and medal authority/dealer when he saw it some years ago as he'd not heard of the marking on berets, "Nesher" is an Israeli beer brand with a similar eagle label design.
Only the top of the beret is lined, there's no stiffener or internal backing for the badge.

Funny that the NESHER label is in french.....
Jo

Yes, the tankies beret is one of a number I have, para, navy, border guard, infantry & corps, Golani Brigade, air force, all with that label and all aquired in Tel Aviv. Israeli squaddies were buying them and sticking them on to replace the raggy ones they were wearing as I was selecting berets and badges that I wanted.
I think I have a Serb beret or two, also with French language labels.
A UN light blue beret I picked up at a Turkish army PX in Sarajevo in 1999 was of similar construction with a woven eagle manufacturer's label. I'll check it, compare the labels.

Edit: the Turkish PX beret with British sourced badge (Cairncross and Son, Filey).
To the right of the badge as viewed are the holes left by removal of the metal UN badge (manufactured with "UNIPTF" on the back) with butterfly clips, positioned over the left temple.

Thank you for the information,quite instructive.
Jo

A great beret and interesting to read the history.

I used to have 1/2 dozen of the para berets, a batch of khaki berets badged to various corps, a few Golani Bde, Border Police, navy, air force, unfortunately most were stolen some years ago leaving just a few singles.
I'll dig out and post the survivors.

I am sorry to hear you were robbed Leigh.

I have one Nahal Brigade beret, and one Armoured in the post to go with a small collection of Israeli head gear.

A fair few Israeli berets seem to turn up on that well known auction site, sometimes very expensive, sometimes very cheap but usually in America so the cost of postage is horrific.
The Border Police green berets with "Nesher" labels were up for sale by n batches of 1/2 dozen or so recently.
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IDF black beret for armoured corps but with an infantry badge on it which I believe shows he was with the infantry for at east a year before transferring to the tanks. I think this is another French made private purchase beret from before the 1980's when the newer infantry badge was introduced with the extra letter.

Interesting, I didn't know about the corps badge retention aspect or the extra letter to the infantry badge.
Just an aside, re. the red badge backing, the majority of backings I saw during visits to Israel way back in 1978-80 were of soft, flexible plastic. Many were of red "Fablon", still with backing.
Many times I saw squaddies nipping in to a shop in Tel Aviv to buy a new, bronzed finish cap badge, the shopkeeper just cut the backing Fablon very roughly with a pair of scissors, the badges and backing were swapped on the beret, the old, worn badge usually left in the shop.
Back then it was possible to buy cap and rank insignia and some badges such as para wings, tank, commando and AFV breast badges but not the fabric formation signs. I was told it wasn't permitted to sell them to the public but I don't know if that was true.

I did more research and discovered that the IDf southern area Para Recon SF unit Sayeret Shaked wore black (para) berets with Infantry badges in the 1970's and 1980's. All para units wear the infantry badge but only this unit officially wore it on a black beret as a para unit.

Certainly another reason which might account for why this beret has the infantry badge.

Interesting, I didn't know that.

Another of my IDF berets.

1980's Nahal Brigade green beret.

IDF para beret 1970's/80's, French made. From online pictures these range in colour from a mid red, this darker red and a more maroon shade of red.

I have a maroon beret and one that is more a red.
I never got my hands on a Nahal, only Golani brown beret, tankie black, khakis, air force, navy, border police and 1/2 dozen para berets.