Grandma's army

  REWRITING HISTORY - I The cumulative effect of the Arab false propaganda has been both counter-factual and unfortunate. Already in 2006, the World Heritage Site Committee of the United Nations Economic, Social, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passed a resolution referring to the Temple Mount  - the holiest site in Judaism - solely by its Arabic, Islamic name, al-Haram al Sharif In spite of the fact that extensive documentation  from antiquity and countless archaeological finds, continue to confirm  both Judaism's ties to Jerusalem, and the Jewish people's millenia-old presence   in the land of Israel. Among the obvious findings that provide proof of ancient writings about the Jews - and Jerusalem - is the Bible, much of which is magnificently displayed by the new excavation of the City of David. Other proofs are the written histories by Joseph Flavius  (37-100 AD); the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides; Peloponnesian War by Thuc...

  REWRITING HISTORY Rewriting the history of the Land of Israel in order to deny Israel's right to exist is central to Palestinian Authority (PA) policy. Long before it started the PA terror campaign (such as the Intifada’s), the PA was fighting a history war - erasing Jewish history and replacing it with a fabricated Palestinian history. This rewriting has two central goals: 1-   Erase the Jewish nation's 4,000 year history in the Land of Israel. 2-    Invent ancient Palestinian, Muslim and Arab histories in the land. This international campaign of delegitimization began a long time before   the establishment of the modern Jewish state. The ancient Romans tried to strip the area of its Jewish identity, to make it more Roman, by renaming Judea  "Syria Palaestina." Later, the fifth caliph of the dynasty of Syria - who ruled during the late 7th century - employed the tactic of delegitimising both Judaism and Christianity,  by constructi...

WORLD WAR II – AN UNTOLD STORY Another of the great untold stories has to do with the countless heroic Jews who served in the U.S., British and Russian militaries during the  War. These soldiers’ vital contributions to the Allied war effort remain buried, partly due to a generally accepted myth that Jews were overwhelmingly victims during the Holocaust.  It was believed that only in Israel were there tough, strong, fighting Jews. But there are other, perhaps biased, reasons that these stories have not yet come to light. The tale of an extraordinary, little-known unit, known as X Troop, is a case in point. In 1942,the Germans seemed to be unstoppable in Europe. Desperate to change the course of the war, Winston Churchill and his Chief of Combined Operations decided to create a commando unit of Jewish refugees. Many of them were in concentration camps before their escape to the U.K., and most had lost their families to the Nazis. They came from Germany and Austria as teen...

  I am indebted to Robert Gandt for his fascinating book called “Angels in the Sky”, from which I selected most of the facts in this incredible story. Reviewing Roert Gandt’s book, Walter Boyne, the former director of the U.S. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, wrote: “It is always rewarding to read a book about combat flying written by an author who obviously knows the subject firsthand! Robert Gandt’s book on the infant Israel Air Force fills a real need, and shines new light on one of the most heroic battles in history. The prowess of the IAF in recent years has   caused us to forget just how precarious was its beginning, and how joyfully the battle was joined by a wide variety of pilots flying airplanes better suited for a museum than combat.” A YEAR LATER At the auspicious date of May 15 th , 1949, Israel’s first victory parade was taking place before   a deliriously happy crowd in Tel-Aviv. Perhaps as many as a quarter of Israel’s tiny population, ...

  From the early hours, on the Sabbath of January 8 th , pilots were already strapped in their cockpits. They were waiting for the inevitable reprisal attack from the humiliated RAF. The hours crept by as the tension mounted. Contrary to the demands of the RAF squadron leaders who were begging for the go-ahead to launch a massive retaliatory strike against Israel, RAF headquarters withheld permission. Instead, the British Foreign Office fired off a furious protest to the Israeli government, demanding compensation for the loss of airmen and aircraft. Truman was condemning  the British for interfering in the Middle East conflict. The British House of Commons was in an uproar. While they were debating the issue, Winston Churchill demanded an explanation for the unreported downing of another British warplane shot down over the coast of Israel the month before ! Although the British Air Ministry tried to dodge the question, Churchill continued to probe. When finally admitting th...

  Just before the ceasefire, the Israeli armoured column was caught by surprise when they heard a wave of enemy warplanes suddenly appearing - killing several soldiers. When another wave came along, the gunners were ready, and hit at least one of the fighters. McElroy, one of the two veteran WWII pilots who were sent to engage in an air battle with the enemy, succeeded in gunning down two of their   Spitfires. His fellow pilot, Goodlin, was caught up in a dangerous duel with another enemy plane, in which he was successful. Neither of the pilots was Jewish. Happening to glance at the Spitfire’s fuselage, Goodlin couldn’t credit what he was seeing!    It was a distinctive large blue, white and red round emblem. The emblem of the British Royal Airforce. It transpired that the   British had been sending armed scouting flights over the battle area since the day before. Two Mosquito aircraft with four Spitfire escorts had flown over the battle zone, without be...

  When sudden rains came to the Negev, the planned offensive had to be postponed. Meanwhile, the Egyptians had been reinforcing their garrisons in the Gaza Strip, predicting that the Israelis planned to attack around Gaza. The predictions were correct. On December 22 nd a massive artillery   barrage on Egyptian positions in the Gaza Strip commenced. After two days of hard fighting and many casualties, little ground was gained on either side. But the assault on Gaza was a deception. Two armoured brigades of the Israeli Army were slipping into position   near Beersheba. From there, they would cut across the Sinai to the Mediterranean coast – behind the enemy stronghold at Gaza. The Egyptian Army would be encircled. Israeli archeologists had recently uncovered a Roman trade route from Beersheba to the Sinai. This way, the Israeli force intended to bypass the enemy fortifications, cutting off all Egyptian forces between El Arish and Gaza. Yigal Allon, who was a for...