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During the Independence War, about 35,000 tons of arms, including cannons, tanks and airplanes, were brought to Israel -
in spite of an U.N. sanctioned embargo on arms shipments to the fighting sides - by arms ships that made over 50 voyages.
The main source of the arms was Checkoslovakia, with Yoguslvia playing an essential role in facilitating their transfer to Israel.
The arms shipments materialized thanks to an arms procurement enterprise which was launched as early as 1945 in anticipation of an eventual end to the British Mandate and an
all-out war with the Arabs.
Following the historic U.N. resolution of the 29th of November 1947, arms procurement became a crucial national defense issue.
As a matter of fact, the state and progress of the arms procurement enterprise in May 1948 gave Ben-Gurion the courage to
push for the declaration of the State of Israel
on the 14th of that month, in spite of heavy objection from outside (the USA in particular) and from prominent leaders inside his own provisional government.
The experience, infustructure and connections that were gained in Aliya Bet facilitated the shipment by sea of the
arms. While the bulk of the arms were transfered
by sea, about 3,000 tons were transfered by air, primarily by "air transport command" - several Commando and Constellation
airplanes that were purchased and smuggled out of the USA by a group of Jewish volunteers (Jewish volunteers from the USA also took part in sea operations -
see the story of Dromit - Kefalos).
The Palyamniks were called to their last mission in their organization's six years of
existence -
escorting the arms ships (in a role of modern Jewish pirates, they even succeeded -- in the bold "Pirate Operation" -- to put
their hands on an arms shipment of the Arabs).
The first three arms ships managed to arrive to the Tel-Aviv port, and unload their badly-needed cargo there, before the British blockade was
lifted. In spite of few operational "glitches" that caused delays in the arrival of some of the arms to the fighters in the fronts, the arms procurement enterprise
as a whole was a huge success, rescuing Israel from a military defeat. Ben-Gurion, who was
personally involved in the arms procurement efforts,
summarized (in 1968) the meaning of this success as follows:
"Without these arms we would have all been massacred".
Written by Tzvi Ben-tzur
Riffles and machine guns are loaded on the Maestralle in Shibennik port, Yoguslavia
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