The unknown story of smuggling weapons to help win Israel's independence
Never before have readers gotten such an inside look at some very feisty – but also courageous and noble – characters, who changed the course of history.
By AARON LEIBELAmerican Jews smuggling weapons to Israel used Panama's airline industry for cover(photo credit: ERICK MARCISCANO/REUTERS)
No, the story of smuggling arms, ammunition and airplanes to the fledgling Jewish state is not “unknown.” But how American Jews and others smuggled vital military supplies to the Jewish community in Palestine and later the Jewish state has never been told in such rich detail. Never before have readers gotten such an inside look at some very feisty – but also courageous and noble – characters, who changed the course of history.In short, the author did some world-class reporting, in the process also producing a PBS documentary, A Wing and a Prayer.The airplane-buying, arms-smuggling effort was led by Al Schwimmer, a Jewish flight engineer for the American Air Transport Command during World War II.After discovering that the Nazis had murdered his Hungarian grandparents and other relatives in Europe, Schwimmer decided to help save the lives of Jewish survivors trying to get to the future Jewish state. He suggested flying survivors to Palestine to avoid British interceptions of refugee-laden ships.The Hagana (precursor to the Israel Defense Forces) representative in New York rejected Schwimmer’s idea, but got him involved as a courier between Hagana offices in New York and Europe.Not long after, he found himself buying surplus airplanes to transport weapons and ammunition – breaking American neutrality laws that forbid such activities – as well as setting up workshops in California and New Jersey to make those planes airworthy and recruiting pilots, navigators, radio operators, mechanics, etc.But it is the nitty-gritty of getting the job done and activities of the characters who risked their lives, not to mention their freedom and citizenships, that make this book unique.We learn, for example, that Schwimmer recruited Hank Greenspun, who had worked for Mafia kingpin Bugsy Siegel. Greenspun went to Hawaii to check out a salvage company that reportedly had surplus planes for sale. The company owner, Nathan, took Greenspun to dinner where their discussion, over “grilled moonfish and … ice-cold Schlitz beer,” turned to the creation of a Jewish state. When Nathan expressed sympathy for that cause, Greenspun told him that his planes were destined for that struggle. The salvage company owner then insisted on donating, rather than selling, the planes.While working at the salvage yard, Greenspun and his partner Willie Sosnow spotted machine guns in an adjacent Navy yard. Working at night, they stole those highly sought-after weapons.When the FBI ratcheted up pressure to end the smuggling, the group offered their planes to Panama to form its national airline. (Panama had built an air terminal but didn’t have aircraft.) The Panamanians agreed and the (fake) airline of Panama was born.The Panamanians wanted a real airline with scheduled service. The men needed to service the planes before flying to Israel so they stalled for time, agreeing to fly some animals to slaughter houses in that country.Finally, the pilots told their hosts that they needed to do a “final route-survey flight” with all nine planes. They took off with their cargoes of weapons and headed for the first refueling spot on their way to Israel.It wasn’t all work. One of the group’s C-46s landed in Sicily to refuel. When officials examined the plane, they discovered weapons and seized the aircraft. Not wanting to waste free time, the plane’s pilot and radio operator decided to have some fun while waiting and “hike the mountains, play backgammon on the beaches, listen to a cellist and flutist perform Bach’s Siciliano… watch street acrobats risk life and limb for a livelihood, and frequent a downtown bar. On the way, they sample so many foods from sidewalk vendors – arancini di riso (fried mozzarella-filled rice balls), fried sardines, homemade gelato – that they leave little room for beer by the time they get there.”The men also transported fighter planes – cut into pieces to fit into the transport planes and reassembled in Israel. The author notes that those few planes played an important role in several crucial battles, including helping to stem the ominous advance of the Egyptian Army on Tel Aviv.Despite the spotlight this book shines on an important part of Israeli history, it has a serious problem. The author gratuitously scatters some questionable – bordering on hostile – comments about Israel throughout the book.For example, he quotes one of the group, Eddie Styrak, as slamming the Revisionist group Irgun for murdering “more than 150 innocent Arabs in Deir Yassin... They shot children, raped women and knifed unarmed old men.”That is certainly the picture that enemies of the Jewish state paint. However, some participants in, and observers of, the battle tell an entirely different tale – including rifle fire from the village onto nearby Jewish Jerusalem neighborhoods prior to the attack; a fierce house-to-house battle for Deir Yassin; and, after the battle, the transporting of women, children and old people from the village to Arab Jerusalem where they were released. Styrak did not witness the battle, but only repeated as fact what he had heard.Later, when one of the donors to the Israeli cause says he wants to help the “righteous” side, the author says that Schwimmer, “has a more balanced perspective, understanding that the Arabs have legitimate grievances and that many Israelis are far from saintly.”Undoubtedly, Israelis are not saintly and some Arabs have real grievances. But neither point has anything to do with Arab hostile actions in 1947-48. They rejected the United Nations resolution to partition the land into Arab and Jewish states; refused to negotiate (with the exception of Jordan’s King Abdullah I, who paid for talking to Jews with his life); invaded even before the British left; and threatened to “push the Jews into the sea” – in other words, to carry out a second Holocaust.Unsaintly Israelis and Arab grievances, indeed.
The writer is a former editor at The Jerusalem Post and Washington Jewish Week. His novel, Generations: The Story of a Jewish Family, which spans 1,500 years and three continents, is available online.SAVING ISRAELBy Boaz DvirStackpole Books252 pages; $29.95
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