Boaz Dvir - Saving Israel: The Unknown Story of Smuggling Weapons and Winning a Nation’s Independence

I RECEIVED SO MUCH WONDERFUL ASSISTANCE ON THIS PROJECT THROUGH the years that I had a hard time choosing whom to thank first. Should I thank my Saba, who set me off on this journey? Operation Zebra transport pilot Leo Gardner, who introduced me to the mission? OZ fighter pilot Gideon Giddy Lichtman, the first to sit down for an on-camera interview? Ralph Lowenstein, my dear friend who archived the Americans and Canadians contributions, including his own, to Israels fight for independence and served as a historical consultant on A Wing and a Prayer? OZ leader Al Schwimmer, who gave me his only on-camera interview about the mission?

The three interviews I conducted with Al offer viewers and readers the only opportunity to hear directly from him about OZ.

Here are several more people to whom Im eternally grateful, in alphabetical order:

• Sandra Brown, daughter of OZ chief pilot Sam Lewis, who preserved his stories on videos and audiotapes
• OZ transport pilot Sheldon Ike Eichel, who gave me all the time in the world
• OZ fighter pilot Leon Frankel, who put in a good word for me with Al Schwimmer
• Ralph Goldman, who worked at the secret North America headquarters of the Haganah, the Palestinian Jewish underground
• OZ transport and fighter pilot Collie Goldstein
• Benny Gshur, who wrote his Hebrew University doctoral dissertation about the IDFs foreign volunteers in the 1948 war
• David Harman, a Harvard PhD and Hebrew University professor who became friends with several OZ members, including Al Schwimmer
• Zdenk Klima, a Czech archivist whos chronicled his countrys sale of arms to Israel
• OZ transport and fighter pilot Lou Lenart, who took two years to convince to give me an interview
• OZ radio operator Harold Livingston, who always answered my calls and promptly replied to my emails
• OZ transport pilot Phil Marmelstein
• OZ C-46 and B-17 pilot Bill Novick
• David and Lawrence Ribakoff, sons of OZ transport pilot Martin Ribakoff, who have been helpful through the years
• Rina Schwimmer, Als wife
• Danny Shapiro, an Israeli fighter pilot
• Lee Silverman, an American volunteer who served in Israeli Air Force (IAF) intelligence
• Fanya Soll, wife of OZ shop-chief Ray Selk
• OZ radio operator Eddie Styrak
• Israeli first lady Reuma Weizman, wife of OZ fighter pilot and later Israeli president Ezer Weizman

I want to thank my editor, Dave Reisch, and his assistant, Stephanie Otto; Penn State University Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications Dean Marie Hardin and Associate Dean Ford Risley; Retro Reports Kyra Darnton, Karen Sughrue, Barbara Dury, Joseph Hogan, Victor Couto, and Cullen Golden, with whom I co-produced a short documentary about this topic; film-producing partner Matthew Einstein; and University of Florida professors Gayle Zachmann, Sergio Vega, and Robert Mueller.

Thank you, also, to my wife, Rachel Wolkenhauer; parents, Dan and Eti Dvir; sister, Norit Dvir; my late brother, Sharon Dvir; and my twin boys, Aden and Ethan Dvir.

• The British declare their intention to end their Mandate of Palestine.
• The British ask the United Nations to study the Palestine issue and make recommendations.

• Sam Lewis becomes TWAs first Jewish captain.
• Radio operator Eddie Styrak gets thrown into a British prison in Palestine for trying to bring in illegal immigrants.
• President Harry S. Truman uses FBI agent Bernarr McFadden Pat Ptaceks work in crafting the Loyalty Act.

• TWA flight engineer Adolph Al Schwimmer goes to the Haganah office in New York with his idea to bypass the British blockade of Palestine by flying in the Holocaust survivors.
• Eddie helps the Irgun prepare for its daring Acre Prison escape.
• Truman reactivates the 1930s Neutrality Act.
• The FBI assigns Pat to investigate the Palestinian Jews arms procurement in the United States.
• Eddie is released from prison and returns to the United States.

• The Soviet Unions UN representative, Andrei Gromyko, shocks the world by proposing splitting Palestine between the Arabs and the Jews.
• The UN forms the Special Committee on Palestine.
• Pat starts investigating Al.
• Al fails to sell the Haganah on his refugee-flying idea.

• Yehuda Arazi becomes the Haganahs arms procurement chief in the United States.
• Arazi asks Al to form a fake airline to prepare to airlift weapons to the Jewish community in Palestine.
• Al sets up a Schwimmer Aviation shop in Burbank, California.
• The British block the SS Exodus from bringing 4,500 Holocaust survivors into Palestine.

• The UN committee recommends splitting Palestine between the Arabs and Jews.
• The Soviet Union champions this recommendation, which becomes known as the Partition Plan.
• Al launches Operation Yakum Purkan to create the Palestinian Jewish communitys air transport command (ATC).
• Al leads a clandestine campaign to recruit pilots, crew members, and mechanics in the United States and Canada.

• OZ members Hank Greenspun and Willie Sosnow steal machine guns from a US Navy yard in Hawaii.
• OZ members buy C-46s and Connies from the US War Assets Administration.
• Al sets up a second Schwimmer Aviation shop in Millville, New Jersey.

• In the days leading up to the vote, Gromyko, the Soviets UN representative, strongly advocates the passage of the Partition Plan.
• The United States votes for the Partition Plan.
• The United Nations passes the Partition Plan by a 3313 vote, with 10 abstentions.

• The United States imposes an arms embargo on the Middle East, keeping the Palestinian Jews from acquiring desperately needed weapons.
• Hanks machine guns, as well as airplane spare parts and engines, arrive in Los Angeles.
• Pat shuts down Schwimmer Aviation.
• Al and Arazi transfer their planes to Service Airways.
• The Palestinian Jews strike a secret, large arms deal with Czechoslovakia.

• Hank brings the stolen machine guns to Mexico.
• Golda Meyerson (later Meir) raises $50 million for the Haganahs arms procurement.

• Members of Congress and other American leaders challenge the US arms embargo.
• OZ makes recruiting progress in the United States and Canada.
• The OZ Burbank and Millville shops, as well as its key members, are under FBI surveillance.

• Al and Hank buy weapons from Mexico, opening the door to purchasing American fighter planes from the same source.
• OZ members complete picking up the C-46s and Connies that they have purchased.
• Labeling the Partition Plan impossible to implement, the United States comes up with and advocates a UN Trusteeship that would curtail the creation of a Jewish state.
• The US State Department declares that, starting April 15, it must clear every aircraft exportfrom planes to parts.
• The Jews launch Operation Balak to airlift the Czech arms.
• The Jews buy ten Messerschmitt fighter planes from the Czechs.
• Pat threatens to close Service Airways.
• Al and Irvin Swifty Schindler come up with the idea of serving as Panamas national airline.

• Panama approves Al and Swiftys proposal, allowing them to transfer their thirteen planes to Lineas Aereas de Panama (LAPSA).