A good find. My view of the Merkava was usually from the other side of the Technical Fence - rather intimidating.
Their tank organization seems driven by their officer/NCO structure, numbers of Merkava 4s and their assessment of the types of tasks they will face. All very reasonable, but two of those reasons might not translate very well to us. The Israeli Army lacks a professional NCO corps in the sense that we do, so officers do a lot of tactical tasks that NCOs would do here. They have also switched from worrying about massed armour battles in the Sinai to engagements in complex terrain. I think we are facing a different threat situation?
So they basically have a half-squadron with Lts instead of WOs commanding two of the Fire Teams and a very lean echelon.
If tank shortages forced our hand I would stick with two Troops of four for our situation.