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The Galil is a cool gun, this one I think is an original IMI, the Galil was sold or licensed out to a few different countries, like South Africa and Guatemala, as well as Estonia, so it got around some.
Israel had found that the FAL variant they had adopted wasn't quite so excellent for desert warfare, and in fact found that their enemies (which they had made many of), were having far better luck with their Kalashnikov rifles, and Israeli troops who used captured Kalashnikovs reported them to be far more practical, and far less bothered by sand (and far easier to fix when it was). The Uzi wasn't 100% excellent either, better for real close CQB than an FAL, but being dramatically outranged by the AK.
Looking at various different alternatives, one was considered to outright just adopt AKs they captured, another just a barely modified AK, but didn't settle for that, they knew they wanted a Kalashnikov rifle, but there were improvements to be made, and they couldn't hope to reliably source AKs and 7.62x39mm ammunition reliably.
In trials, one of the submissions was a prototype outright based on a Finnish Rk.62, and this was the direction they went with. In my opinion, this is about the best choices, as the further developed and improved AK designs from Finland, made by Sako and Valmet, are absolutely excellent.
It would ultimately take a backseat to the mountains of free M16A1s donated by the United States (many soldiers preferring the lighter weight and better inherent precision), I think that still the Galil is a rock solid weapon, it has great improvements, and the 5.56x45mm cartridge is very close to the 5.45x39mm in ballistics, going the route of the AK74 many years before the Soviets did.
I like the improved sights, the flash hider, the turned up charging handle, the added thumb safety lever, the protected and extended magazine release, the far more comfortable folding stock, and the bottle opener. Further, it's a very aesthetically pleasing rifle.
