Grandma's army

  Emmanuel Tsur was an Israeli agent and pilot. Armed with a stack of passports in various names, and a portfolio of false companies, he made acquisitions for the IDF. In July 1948 he was in England, looking for fighter airplanes that could come in fast and low, and make precise drops. He was examining two war-surplus Mosquito bombers. They were ideal for Israel’s needs – fast, multi-role fighter bombers – and in good condition. Tsur’s problem was now how to get them to Israel. John Harvey, going by the alias “Terence Farnfield” was an ex-RAF flier and he worked for Tsur. Flying one of the Mosquito’s, after filing a flight plan to Exeter, he turned south and headed toward France. He barely made it to Haifa. A few day’s later, a hired pilot was taking off in the second Mosquito when he was slammed back into the airfield. He survived the crash, but the plane was destroyed. It didn’t burn because the fuel tanks were empty, even though he had supervised the fuelling the night bef...

Like the corona virus, the new anti-Semitism has mutated so that practitioners of it can deny that they are anti-Semites. “After all”, they’ll say, “I’m not a racist. I have no problem with Jews or Judaism. I only have a problem with the State of Israel”. But in a world of 56 Muslim nations and 103 Christian ones, there is only one Jewish state, which constitutes one-quarter of one per cent of the land mass of the Middle East! Israel is the only one of the 193 member nations of the United Nations that has its right to exist regularly challenged, with one state, Iran, and other groups, committed to its destruction. How come the Jews have been  “chosen” for thousands of years as the world’s scapegoats whenever a crisis emerges? At the time of Jesus, Jews were hated because of their religion. At the time of Hitler they were hated because of their race. Today, since the leading source of authority worldwide is “human rights” Israel is regularly accused of crimes against humanity:...

  A DIFFERENT WAR The idea for “Grandma’s Army” began when I had seven grandchildren in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) at the same time.   However, my family’s participation in the IDF started off   much earlier - when Israel barely had an army and I was decidedly not a grandma!   The war, in which my husband   took part, is   usually known as the Suez Crisis. It took place only eight years after the Israeli Declaration of Independence, and had far-reaching consequences - at both global and regional levels.  On regional levels, the war gave an impetus to the spread of pan-Arabic ideology, leading to the unification of Syria and Egypt and creating the UAR (United Arab Republic). On global levels it marked, not only the end of the British and French influence in the Middle East, but also the decline of the two European powers. It’s outcome was arguably one of the most significant episodes in post-1945 British history, highlighting Br...