About the Handgun:
Widely known in the US as the 'Baby Eagle' this model only has a slight resemblance to the famous 'Desert Eagle'. It's internals though have more in common with the CZ 75.
About the Manufacturer:
It is said that this Israeli company dates back as far as 1933 during the British Mandate in Palestine, when the Jewish underground at the time resorted to manufacturing illegal weapons. IWI is actually a recent (2005) privatization of the former Israel Military Industries (IMI) Small Arms Division, which has been a leading weapons manufacturer for over 60 years. This company is widely known for developing the UZI automatic pistol. They developed the 9x21mm pistol cartridge for world markets where civilian use of the 9mm NATO cartridge is not permitted. Additionally, for over ten years IWI(IMI) also manufactured the components for Magnum Research's Desert Eagle Pistols.
About the Cartridge:
This cartridge was introduced along with the Luger semi-automatic pistol. The pistol and cartridge was first adopted by the German Navy in 1904 and then by the German Army in 1908. This cartridge has since been adopted by the military of practically every non-Communist power. It has become the most popular and widely-used handgun cartridge in the world. Performance wise, the 9mm cartridge has somewhat more power than the .38 Special but falls well short of the .357 Magnum.