Operation Balak
Encyclopedia
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in 1948, that purchased arms in Europe to avoid various embargoes and boycotts transferring them to the Zionists. Of particular note was the delivery of 23 Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
-made Avia S-199
Avia S-199
|-See also:-External links: *** with more pictures and further information...
fighters, the post-war version of the German Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
Messerschmitt Bf 109
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...
.
A former Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
pilot and gentile
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
named Gordon Levett
Gordon Levett
Lieut. Col. Gordon Levett was a former Royal Air Force pilot in the Second World War who volunteered for a covert mission to fly supplies including dismantled fighter planes into the fledgling state of Israel in its War for Independence...
, who served in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, volunteered for the Israel Machal
Machal
Machal is a term used to describe both Jewish and non-Jewish volunteers who went to Israel to fight in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War including Aliyah Bet. About 4,000 volunteers from all over the world came to fight on the Israeli side....
(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. "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
Gordon Levett
Lieut. Col. Gordon Levett was a former Royal Air Force pilot in the Second World War who volunteered for a covert mission to fly supplies including dismantled fighter planes into the fledgling state of Israel in its War for Independence...
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
Haganah
Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces.- Origins :...
, 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
Gordon Levett
Lieut. Col. Gordon Levett was a former Royal Air Force pilot in the Second World War who volunteered for a covert mission to fly supplies including dismantled fighter planes into the fledgling state of Israel in its War for Independence...
was given the task of flying Avia S-199
Avia S-199
|-See also:-External links: *** with more pictures and further information...
fighters, supplied by Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
from the Czechoslovak Air Force airfield (code-named Etzion or Zebra by Israelis) near Žatec
Žatec
Žatec is an old town in the Czech Republic, in Louny District, Ústí nad Labem Region. It has a population of 19,813 .The earliest historical reference to Sacz is in the Latin chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg of 1004. During the 11th century it belonged to the Vršovci - a powerful Czech...
(seventy-five kilometers west of Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
) to Ekron airfield (formerly RAF Aqir) close to Rehovot
Rehovot
Rehovot is a city in the Center District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2009 the city had a total population of 112,700. Rehovot's official website estimates the population at 114,000.Rehovot was built on the site of Doron,...
now Tel Nof Israeli Air Force Base
Tel Nof Israeli Air Force Base
Tel Nof Israeli Air Force , also known as Air Force Base 8, is one of three principal airbases of the Israeli Air Force. Tel Nof is located near Rehovot, Israel.-History:...
. The airfield near Žatec had been put at disposal of the Haganah by a new Czechoslovak foreign minister Vladimír Clementis
Vladimír Clementis
Vladimír "Vlado" Clementis was a Slovak minister, politician, lawyer, publicist, literary critic, author and a prominent member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. He married Lída Pátková, a daughter of a branch director of Czech Hypothec Bank in Bratislava, in March 1933. He became a Communist...
(a prominent Slovak member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia) and was under the command of Yehuda Ben Chorin. Operation Balak lasted three months, during which time Levett managed to airlift tons of arms
Weapon
A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...
, ammunition
Ammunition
Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...
and personnel (Rothkirchen, 2006, p. 287).
The name is a reference to the Balak
Balak
Balak was king of Moab around 1200 BC. According to Book of Numbers 22:2, and the Book of Joshua 24:9, Zippor was the father of Balak.Book of Revelation 2:12 - 2:14 says about Balak:...
, king of the Moabites, son of Zippor, whose name is mentioned in Numbers
Book of Numbers
The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch....
22:2. By extension, the name came to mean 'Destroyer.'