Film Honors U.S. Pilot Defenders of Israel
During Israel's 1948 War for Independence, a small band of American pilots quickly left everything they had in the States and risked their lives to take to the skies in defense of the brand new nation.
They were part of the Machal, or the Volunteers. In effect, they founded the Israeli Air Force. David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, would later say they saved the nation.
Their remarkable story is the subject of a new Spielberg documentary--not Steven Spielberg, but his sister, Nancy.
She produced the film, called "Above and Beyond," which includes recollections by several of the pilots.
The film was screened at the Jerusalem Film Festival this summer, with the audience giving one Machal pilot, 94-year-old Lou Lenart, a standing ovation. "Above and Beyond" also opened the Calgary Jewish Film Festival earlier this month.
The production will come to theater screens in 2015, and Spielberg told The Jerusalem Post she plans to turn the documentary into a feature film.
"One of the hardest parts of making the movie was deciding what I had to leave out. There were so many capers, so many stories, you can't include them all," she said.
In 1966, Hollywood told the story of one of the heroic pilots, Mickey Marcus, in the film, "Cast a Giant Shadow," starring Kirk Douglas. Marcus was killed by friendly fire in battle.
Tinseltown hasn't paid much attention since then.
The American Machal pilots not only risked their lives, they also risked their citizenship. With urging from the State Department and the Pentagon, the United States had placed an arms embargo on Israel, fearing reprisals and backlash from Arab leaders that could endanger oil supplies.
The State Department made every effort to stop President Harry Truman from recognizing Israel in May, 1948. Having failed that, the leadership succeeded in an official embargo.
Israel had tremendous difficulty cobbling together the planes, military equipment, and personnel needed to stave off attacks from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq.
Thanks in large measure to the pilots from places like Brooklyn, New York, and St. Paul, Minnesota, the new nation survived, then thrived.
