With No Stake In The Game, There Are Those That Will Fight And Die For Others

On April 30th, two weeks before America celebrates our Memorial Day, Israel celebrates theirs. Yom HaZikaron. Similar to here, honoring the servicemen and women,..with the added honoring of those who died by terrorists, with a special emphasis on the nary 3,000 civilians killed. It is followed a day later by Yom HaAtzma’ut. Independence Day.

When i think of the phrase ‘selfless service’, included in my heart has always been the Lincoln Battalion (a LB vet once told me, “That’s BATTALION, son..not brigade”.) Those 3,000 American volunteers who joined the Republican losing struggle against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War from ‘36-’39. 681 died. 22%. Most had no Spanish heritage. They had no dog in the fight. But they were driven there by a sense of inner honor..to help those underdogs that were fighting to be free. Also included, lesser-known, are the Machalniks. Who are widely thought to being the singular reason that Israel persevered.

Known as MACHAL (Mitnadvei chutz l’Aretz) translates to volunteers from abroad. Over 4,500 hundred men and women, Jews and 40% non-Jews, from 58 countries. The volunteers were quite diverse in terms of family background, occupation, socio-economic status, etc. Most of them came to help and then return back to their homes.

Most had fought in Europe in WWII, on the land, air and sea. And they were deeply moved and influenced by what they saw...the concentration camps and the survivors. Those in America and Canada that hadn’t seen the horror of the camps first-hand learned the horrors, including that the survivors of the camps and holocaust refugees, had become ‘stateless persons’, such as those in internment camps in Cyprus with only the Joint Distribution Committee to save them. That most were not let in anywhere for their survival, including America. That the British (in both 1939 and 1948) had a naval blockade almost eliminating Jewish immigration of the survivors to Palestine. At times, Britain forbade any immigration. That the United Nations imposed an embargo of any military equipment, from planes to bullets, to the Jewish state, and their struggle for Independence. And that at least 6 well-armed Arab nations had pledged to invade. For many, they heard enough..and though many had no dog in the fight, they were going to get themselves to Palestine and help even the odds.

But they ran high personal risks. As Historian and Author Klaus Mommsen explains, The embargo on Palestine went so far in the USA that passports were stamped with the remark ‘void for travel to serve in foreign armed forces.’ Anyone who ignored this risked losing their U.S. citizenship..so all volunteeri ng from America and Canada had to be done covertly. Serving as a front, the Jewish organization, ‘Land And Labor To Palestine’ established offices in bigger cities, where eventually some 3,400 men and 200 women enlisted. Using their own passports, the volunteers first traveled legally by ship or aircraft to France or Italy...where they vanished from sight. They secretly entered Jewish refugee camps, took new names and received forged papers. From here, as crew or passengers of Aliyah Bet ships, they started their journey towards Palestine..which often ended in a British internment camp in Cyprus.

Aliyah Bet, or the Ha’apala movement, was the attempt and large-scale enterprise to evade and break the naval blockade and bring in refugees and arms. 236 Machal former servicemen of the Allied navies were lead crews of ten clandestine refugee ships, out of sixty-six vessels. Arms, including planes, were also sneaked in, but the concentration was for refugees. In 1945, they had one ship, renamed for the Jewish Hungarian writer and resistance fighter HANA SENESH, which, loaded with 252 Holocaust survivors. made it safely to the shore of Palestine. This small boat was the first ship of Aliyah Bet and of the Israeli Navy. Many boats were substandard, old cargo ships overloaded with refugees. By ‘48, Machalniks that served in the U.S., Canadian and Royal Navies became the nucleus of the Israel navy’s officer corps, and from the very first days took over training the inexperienced crews.

But the largest presence of Machal was in the Israeli Air Force, making up nearly two-thirds of its personnel...to the point that English overtook Hebrew as the most widely- used IAF service language. Cargo flight crews by Machal crews transported thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries and weapons and supplies to Palestine from Europe. During the Egyptian Army siege of the Negev region, Machal pilots airlifted thousands of tons of supplies to communities behind enemy lines, usually landing large cargo and makeshift, converted airliners at night, on unpaved sand runways, hand lit with oil lamps.

The IAF was founded by planes provided by various diaspora groups which procured planes in the critical months of ’48-’49, including 6 planes from Australia, despite the arms blockade enforced only against Israel amongst all the combatants.

By numbers, Machalniks were a minority of the IDF, but since most were veterans, these experienced warriors quickly made up the core elements in nearly every IDF fighting unit, very much as well in the Infantry.

In Spring of ‘48, Palestine was dominated by the impending end of the British mandate. Nobody had any doubts that on the effective date, May 14, all out war would ensue. The last wave of Machal came slipping through the blockade...many that were caught and held in Cyprus 1-2 years previous, but then tried again to finally succeed.

By July in 1948 it looked like the war and their struggle for Independence would very well be lost. 70% of Israel had been occupied by the invading armies. The Egyptians were 20 miles from Tel Aviv. The Machal air crews are given credit for greatly helping turn the tide of the war.

At the end of the war in 1949, the majority of the Machal returned to their home countries. Some remained, and the town of Kfar Daniel was founded by Machal veterans from North America and the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia.

May i recommend a movie, which is available on Netflix, ‘Above And Beyond’,..Machal WWII fighter pilots, a ragtag band of brothers that turned the tide of the war and prevented the annihilation of Israel at the very moment of its birth. Very, very well-done.

The War of Independence cost Israel 6,300 civilians and service personnel, which was 1% of the entire Jewish population in Palestine...and among those are 123 Machalniks...119 men and 4 women, that lost their lives.

How i wish the end-results would have been the same for the Lincoln Brigade...Battalion.

I know there is another thought from this history...the one from the point of view of the Palestinian Arabs. I acknowledge that it exists and plan to write a diary on it in the future.