Operation Balak
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During the chaotic period of the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, Operation Balak was the smuggling of arms purchased in Europe, avoiding various embargoes and boycotts[1] , to the Zionists. Of particular note was the delivery of 23 Czechoslovakia-made Avia S-199 fighters, the post-war version of Messerschmitt Bf 109 produced for the German Luftwaffe.
A former Royal Air Force pilot and gentile named Gordon Levett, who served in World War II, volunteered for the Israel Machal (the overseas volunteer unit) early in 1948 along with a few Jewish pilots from Britain. Brought up in poverty in Sussex, England, Levett had an affinity for the underdog.[2] "Looking back, I have neither failed nor succeeded, the fate of most of us," Levett reflected later, "but I shall leave the world a better place than when I entered it because I helped found the State of Israel."
Initially, Levett was regarded with deep suspicion. "Not only was he not a Jew, but Mr. Levett was particularly notable because he was British," said The New York Times. "To most Israelis at that time, the recently lapsed British mandate in Palestine had been decidedly pro-Arab, and British Government policy was seen as anti-Zionist."
"Recruited in March 1948 by emissaries in Europe of the Haganah, the Jewish fighting force in Palestine, Mr. Levett was viewed with a healthy dose of suspicion," noted the Times. "'In my last interview I was told, 'We're quite convinced that you are a British spy, but we're going to take you to see what you're up to,'" he recalled.
In June Levett was given the task of flying Avia S-199 fighters, supplied by Czechoslovakia from the Žatec military airfield (code-named Etzion Base, seventy-five kilometers west of Prague), to Aqir aerodrome code-named Ekron, formerly RAF station close to Rehovot now Tel Nof Israeli Air Force Base. The Žatec base had been put at disposal of the Haganah by a new Czechoslovakian foreign minister Vlado Clementis (a prominent Slovakian member of Czechoslovakian Communist Party) and was under the command of Yehuda Ben Chorin. Operation Balak lasted several months, during which time Levett managed to airlift tons of arms, ammunition and personnel (Rothkirchen, 2006, p. 287).
The name is a reference to the Balak, king of the Moabites, son of Zippor, whose name is mentioned in Numbers 22:2. By extension, the name came to mean 'Destroyer.'
See also: Arms shipments from Czechoslovakia
[edit] References
- Rothkirchen, Livia (2006). The Jews of Bohemia and Moravia: Facing the Holocaust. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-3952-1
- Eliezer Cohen (Ceetah), The sky is not the limit, Ma'riv Books, 1990
- Levett, Gordon (1994). Flying under two flags : an ex-RAF pilot in Israel’s War of Independence. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 0714641022
- The New York Times, May 10, 1998, British pilot Gordon Levett
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| Pre-IDF: Nachshon | Harel | Misparayim | Hametz | Yevusi | Yiftach | Matate | Balak | Maccabi | Gideon | Barak | Ben-Ami | Kilshon | Schfifon | Ben Nun | |
| IDF: Operation Erez | Ben Nun B | Yitzhak | Yoram | Dekel | Danny | Kedem | Hiram | Yoav | Horev | Assaf | Ovda | |
