WASHINGTON—Presidential candidate and military prep school veteran Donald Trump was revealed this morning to actually be Russian President Vladimir Putin wearing an outlandish hairpiece. The revelation came after weeks of investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department.
“We really can’t comment at this time,” said FBI spokeswoman Michael P. Kortan, “except to say that Trump is definitely Prime Minister Putin. This is strictly off the record, but you can quote me on that. And this investigation has nothing to do with the fact that in most polls, Trump would handily win over any Democrat opponent. The FBI is not at all a political organization.”
Kortan then added that she would take any questions about the investigation into the Tea Party.
Investigators and watchdog groups were first alerted to the Trump/Putin impersonation when it was pointed out that the two were never seen in pubic together.
“The failure of two arrogant loudmouth braggarts to ever appear in the same place, at the same time, spoke volumes by itself,” according to Chris Farrell, Director of Investigations at Judicial Watch. “From there, it was just a matter of putting together the pieces.”
“In retrospect it makes so much sense that I’m surprised we didn’t realize sooner,” said Diplomatic Security Special Agent Derek McDaniel. “Who would claim that a couple years in a paramilitary reform school is the same as being a combat veteran, other than the same colossal ego that justifies the forcible annexation of huge swaths of Georgia and Ukraine by claiming that it’s merely ‘protecting ethnic Russians’?”
Suspicions were reinforced, McDaniel added, when investigators noticed that both Putin and Trump have been romantically involved with a long series of “models” that are essentially extremely high-end prostitutes.
In light of revelation, the Federal Election Commission has rescinded its approval of Trump’s campaign announcement paperwork, declaring him ineligible to seek election to the American Presidency. Putin/Trump, in spite of this, insisted that he will continue to campaign.
“The FEC is a buncha yuuuuge loosahs,” said Trump/Putin during a press conference from the bow of a yacht named Trump’s Pride, which is currently docked in the swimming pool of a larger yacht named Trump’s Talent. “I bet they’re all a buncha broads with tiny boobs. Maybe they need a little roughing up. They got no class. I’m not gonna stop campaigning. To the White House, comrades! Boosh moi, I mean, uh, God Bless America!”
Russian Su-34 bombers, additionally equipped with air-to-air missiles, have set out on their first mission in Syria, said Igor Klimov, spokesman for the Russian Air Force.
“Today, Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers have made their first sortie equipped not only with high explosive aviation bombs and hollow charge bombs, but also with short- and medium-range air-to-air missiles,” Klimov said.
“The planes are equipped with missiles for defensive purposes,” he added.
The missiles have target-seeking devices and are “capable of hitting air targets within a 60km radius,” he said.
Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber operating in Syria on November 24, with Ankara claiming that the warplane had violated Turkish airspace. Moscow has rejected the claims, saying that according to its military intelligence the Su-24 never left Syrian airspace.
On Monday, Turkey’s prime minister said that Ankara will not apologize for the incident.
“No Turkish prime minister or president will apologize … for doing our duty,” Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters after meeting NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels.
In the wake of the downing, President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed a decree imposing a package of economic sanctions against Turkey. The measures include banning several Turkish organizations and the import of certain goods. Under the sanctions, the visa-free regime for Turkish nationals traveling to Russia will be suspended starting next year. The Russian government has also been tasked with introducing a ban on charter flights between Russia and Turkey and to enhance security control at Russian ports on the Sea of Azov and Black Sea.
Russia has been conducting airstrikes targeting Islamic State militants (IS, former ISIS, ISIL) and other terrorist groups in Syria since September 30. The strikes were launched after a formal request from Damascus. Russian jets have been carrying out sorties from Moscow’s Khmeimim Air Base in Latakia.
On Thursday, Moscow recalled its military representative from Turkey. At the same time Russian Defense Ministry said that all channels of military cooperation with Ankara were suspended including a hotline set up to share information about Russian airstrikes in Syria.
In the aftermath of last week’s dramatic events which have seen Turkey make a unilateral breach of NATO’s unwritten rules of engagement by taking down a Russian jet, coupled with an assault on civil right and expression of speech when two journalists were arrested for exposing Turkish arms smuggling to Syria, culminating with the assassination of a prominent enemy of the state on live TV, one would expect that the “democratic, humanistic” western countries would at least issue a harsh condemnation of Erdogan’s behavior.
That won’t happen: instead, the European Union will pay Turkey $3.2 billion to help it stop the flow of refugees to Europe from the conflict in Syria, 2.2 million of whom are currently in Turkey and to prevent Europe’s worst refugee crisis from getting even worse.
In addition, the banana republic that is Turkey will be one step closer to joining the European Union as EU accession talks are restarted. As AFP reminds us, Turkey is the main gateway for migrants and refugees to reach Europe and Brussels has been wooing Ankara for months to secure its cooperation, but relations remain difficult and the devil will be in the details of the deal they will reach on Sunday.
According to Reuters, Turkey will help the European Union handle the flow of migrants that has called into question the future of Europe’s passport-free travel in exchange for cash and restarting stalled talks on EU accession, draft conclusions of an EU-Turkey summit said.
“Both sides will, as agreed and with immediate effect, step up their active cooperation on migrants who are not in need of international protection, preventing travel to Turkey and the EU, ensuring the application of the established bilateral readmission provisions and swiftly returning migrants who are not in need of international protection to their countries of origin,” the draft, seen by Reuters, said.
In exchange, Turkey will get 3 billion euros of initial aid to handle the refugees on its territory. The amount might be adjusted later on depending on developments, the draft said.
More rewards for Turkey are forthcoming: the EU would also open in December the next chapter of negotiations with Turkey in its accession talks to the EU, which have been dragging on since 2005, and prepare further chapters for discussion in the first three months of next year.
The EU also aims to lift the need for visas for Turks traveling to the EU in October 2016 if Ankara meets certain criteria specified in an agreed roadmap, said the draft, which may still be changed after the talks which start at 1500 GMT.
Ironically, neither Turkey’s shooting down of the Russian jet nor president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to skip the summit will derail the process, which is now on auto pilot with a suddenly very worried Angela Merkel willing to do anything to prevent further millions of Syrian refugees from entering Germany.
Earlier today, Merkel confirmed that when it comes to Europe’s “partners”, the only thing that matters is how they can be leveraged to offset structural failures of the “union”, when she said the EU will ratchet up cooperation with Turkey as leaders meet to discuss tackling the region’s refugee crisis. There was, again, no mention of Erdogan’s brutal crackdown on any political dissent.
Among the things Merkel told reporters ahead of the EU-Turkey meeting is that “a significant part of this EU-Turkey action plan will be about how we can replace illegal migration with legal migration, how we can improve the situation for refugees in Turkey. Turkey is sheltering well more than 2 million refugees and has received only little international support, so rightly expects that the European Union, the member states will alleviate Turkey in tackling this burden.”
What she really meant is that another 2 million refugees entering Germany could well destabilize the political tenure of the iron chancellor.
She then said that the EU deal with Turkey will entail improving conditions for refugees in Turkey as well as “shutting down the networks of smugglers and traffickers, to enable legal migration.” Oddly, there was no mention of a crackdown on the Islamic State’s funding networks.
Finally, she said that leaders will also discuss visa liberalization for Turkey, moving forward with EU accession talks and repatriating migrants into Turkey.
* * *
To summarize: Turkey has been instrumental in not only arming, but financing the Islamic State, whose actions in Syria have led to an unprecedented exodus of refugees mostly through Turkey, which Europe is now hoping to bribe so it will lock down its borders and keep those millions of refugees on the territory of Turkey, or ideally, just send them packing back to the nation they are desperate to flee. And for masterminding all of this, Europe will pay Turkey billions and put it back on its European Union accession route, eliminating the need for visas for Turkish citizens.
Next we look forward to learn how much that other key entry gateway of the migrant pathway into Europe – Greece – will demand, now that the EU’s desperate starting bid to halt the refugee flow has been revealed. We expect Athens to settle for nothing less than a cool €1-2 billion as it demands the same treatment as Turkey.
MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/. Russia is ready to coordinate practical steps to block the Turkish-Syrian border in cooperation with Damascus, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday after talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.
Lavrov recalled that French President Francois Hollande earlier voiced the proposal to adopt specific measures to block the Turkish-Syrian border.
“We actively support that. We are open for coordination of practical steps, certainly, in interaction with the Syrian government,” he said. “We are convinced that by blocking the border we will in many respects solve the tasks to eradicate terrorism on Syrian soil.”
“We hope that initiative by President Hollande will be implemented within the framework of our joint work, including in the Group of Support for Syria,” the minister said.
Russia has questions about Ankara’s commitment to anti-terror efforts
Lavrov pointed out that Russia has question about Ankara’s real plans, including those on counter-terrorist efforts.
“The hotbed of terrorist treat is concentrated in vast territories of Syria and Iraq,” he said. “It is the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and we have a common opinion that it can be exterminated only without any double standards. Special responsibility in terms of denouncing such double standards and acting in a united front against terrorism rests on Syria’s neighbor countries.”
“We think it highly cynical when some of the countries speak about their commitment to the corresponding United Nations Security Council resolutions and declare themselves members of anti-terrorist coalitions but in reality are playing a game where terrorists are allocated the role of secret allies,” Lavrov stressed. “We have more and more questions about Ankara’s real plans and the degree of its readiness to exterminate terrorism, in particular in Syria, and its commitment to the normalization of the situation in Syria.”
The Russian top diplomat drew attention to the statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who stressed that terrorist threat could be countered through the efforts of the entire world community, with due respect to the norms of international law and the United Nations Security Council’s central role.
“We are ready to take due account of these or those concerns and interests of the countries committed to anti-terrorist efforts and are ready for such formats of coalition, cooperation and coordination that would cause no discomfort to anyone,” he said. “Now it is up to our partners, including those who are members of the coalition formed last year by the United States, which has yielded no visible results as of yet.”
Some accomplishments you really shouldn’t take pride in. Like being deranged psychos in a death cult who have lost touch with all normal human emotions. You really shouldn’t take pride in that. But try telling that to the psycho death cult.
The Palestinian Authority Minister of Women’s Affairs, Haifa Al-Agha, who is herself a woman, recently praised Palestinian women pointing out their “uniqueness” compared to all the other women of the world because they rejoice upon the news of the death of their sons:
“[PA] Minister of Women’s Affairs Haifa Al-Agha… noted the Palestinian woman’s uniqueness, which differentiates her from the women of the world, as [only] she receives the news of her son’s Martyrdom with cries of joy.”
That thing about them loving their kids more than they love killing your kids, is not happening any time soon.
But there’s some bad news for Haifa Al-Agha, aside from being a horrible monster whose emotions are twisted into something only a serial killer would recognize, what she claims is a unique attribute of “Palestinian” women isn’t.
Because…
1. There are no Palestinians
2. This type of behavior is fairly typical of Islamic responses to their kids dying for the Jihad around the world.
The PLO has helped create an artificial national identity for Muslims in certain parts of the Middle East as “Palestinians” based around their terrorism, but it’s just the Islamic theology of terror that celebrates murderers as martyrs and teaches parents to long for the deaths of their children as long as they die while killing non-Muslims.
In July, the New York Times was reporting that three full Islamic battalions were fighting in eastern Ukraine.
What a mess. The question for the West now is who they would rather having controlling Ukraine’s territory in the near future — ISIS or Russia — and the answer is clearly the latter. If the West wants to build a common coalition against the Islamic State, the best approach may be to remove the Islamic State of Turkey from NATO, allow Russia to take Ukraine, and then invite Russia into NATO (or whatever new alliance seems appropriate) in our common cause against the global jihad.
***********************
Back in February, The Intercept was the first media outlet to reveal clear linkages between ISIS and Ukraine. The article by Marcin Mamon begins by recounting how the leader of the Islamic State’s underground branch in Istanbul was headed to Ukraine to join other members of ISIS in fighting those from Eastern Ukraine that want further autonomy from Kiev and a likely political alliance with Moscow.
Immediately we have a problem. It is unlikely that many average citizens in the West are aware that ISIS is fighting on the side of the Ukraine nationalists. If they were, public opinion might drastically shift towards support for Russia — as it should. Better to have Ukraine be a proxy state of Russia than yet another budding member of the global Islamic Caliphate taking shape.
Any arguments that ISIS is helping Ukrainian nationalists fight the Russian backed separatists out of the goodness of its heart, and that ISIS will just pack up and leave Ukraine if a victory is won, strain all measures of credulity. If the Russian separatists lose in eastern Ukraine, Ukraine may very well be on the path to falling under control — at least partially — of ISIS, placing ISIS with a state under its control on the borders of several NATO members. Did the West possibly back the wrong horse in Ukraine? Should we instead have supported Russia?
Ukraine is now becoming an important stop-off point for the brothers, like Ruslan. In Ukraine, you can buy a passport and a new identity. For $15,000, a fighter receives a new name and a legal document attesting to Ukrainian citizenship. Ukraine doesn’t belong to the European Union, but it’s an easy pathway for immigration to the West. Ukrainians have few difficulties obtaining visas to neighboring Poland, where they can work on construction sites and in restaurants, filling the gap left by the millions of Poles who have left in search of work in the United Kingdom and Germany.
Remarkably, Justin Raimondo at the website Antiwar.com predicted the problems this would cause back in early March of this year:
We are told that ISIS is planning terrorist attacks in Europe, and security forces are busy rounding up suspects all across the continent – and yet here is this gaping hole in the West’s defenses, where “the brothers” are quietly infiltrating without much notice in the Western media. In cooperation with ultra-nationalist groups like Right Sector, which have also formed their semiautonomous battalions, the Islamists of Ukraine, brandishing Ukrainian passports, have opened a gateway to the West …
As US aid flows into Ukraine, how much of it will trickle down to these allies of ISIS — and to what future use will it be put? If John McCain and Lindsey Graham have their way, US arms will soon find their way into the hands of these terrorists, whose jihad against the Russians is bound to turn westward and strike at the capitals of Europe.
This is blowback with a vengeance: we are creating our own enemies, and giving them the weapons to harm us, even as we claim the need for universal surveillance in order to fight them. The mad scientists formulating US foreign policy are raising an army of Frankenstein monsters — who are sure to come after their deluded creators.
Like clockwork, eight months later we have the Paris attacks.
In July, the New York Times was reporting that three full Islamic battalions were fighting in eastern Ukraine. At about the same time, Elliot Friedland in The Jewish Voice was warning against the problems arising from this Islamic incursion in Ukraine:
Yet there are Islamist paramilitary battalions fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, which are aligned with the Islamic State and Chechen Islamist factions. If the U.S. steps up military aid to Ukraine, whose army is notoriously corrupt it may fall into the hands of Islamist battalions currently funded by a mixture of Ukrainian oligarchs, Gulf patrons, violent crime and extortion. The Ruskayya Blatina website said that a few militias belonging to the terrorist group ISIS began to fight against the Russian soldiers in Ukraine with support from the American authorities who gave recommendations to the Ukrainian government regarding the Islamic State … Islamic State-aligned fighters also use Ukraine as a cheap and easy place to buy weapons, which can then be smuggled to Iraq and Syria and Chechenya.
During the past two months, connections between Ukraine and ISIS have moved up the chain of command, as evidenced by a top Ukrainian official giving his public support for ISIS. Just last week, weapons — including a FN-6 antiaircraft missile system — from the Ukrainian military “magically” ended up in the hands of ISIS which “were meant to be delivered to the militant group in Syria via smuggling routes in Turkey.”
Soon after, the Russian hacking group CyberBerkut claimed it is “in possession of documents indicating that employees of the Ukrainian state-owned defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom had discussions with Qatari government officials over the possible sale of surface-to-air missiles [the S-125-2D Pechora-2D (NATO reporting name SA-3 Goa)] in September,” weapons that were almost undoubtedly destined for ISIS. According to the leaked documents, the U.S. embassy in Doha also approved the deal.
What a mess. The question for the West now is who they would rather having controlling Ukraine’s territory in the near future — ISIS or Russia — and the answer is clearly the latter. If the West wants to build a common coalition against the Islamic State, the best approach may be to remove the Islamic State of Turkey from NATO, allow Russia to take Ukraine, and then invite Russia into NATO (or whatever new alliance seems appropriate) in our common cause against the global jihad.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!” — Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17
We will see what happens if a NATO jet or Turkish jet fly over Syrian soil without permission of Syria .
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu (L) held a press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Nov. 30, 2015. AA Photo
NATO has pledged support to Turkey over the downing of the Russian fighter jet which violated Turkish airspace on Nov. 24, while Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said there will be no apology for the incident.
Speaking before members of the press after a meeting in Brussels on Nov. 30, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the North Atlantic Alliance was pledging support to Turkey in its efforts to defend its borders. “Turkey has the right to defend itself and [its] airspace,” said Stoltenberg.
Meanwhile, Davutoğlu said Turkey would not offer any apology to Russia as it was a national issue for the country, contrary to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand.
“No country can ask us to apologize [for the incident] because [we were] doing our job,” said Davutoğlu. “Our action was a defensive action.”
“This is more of an issue of dignity for us,” added Davutoğlu.
“Our army did their job in protecting our border,” he said, stressing it was the border between Turkey and Syria.
Davutoğlu said Turkey’s rules of engagement were made clear to Russia three times, in Ankara, Antalya and Moscow, before the downing of the jet.
“It was a defensive action. If there was no violation [of Turkish airspace] there would not be such a crisis,” he said, adding that Turkey had no intention of escalating the tension and was open to talks at every level and sharing information about the incident to make Turkey’s position clear.
Stoltenberg said what was important at the moment was easing relations and that they supported all talks between Turkey and Russia to de-escalate the tensions.
He said the NATO Ministerial Meeting on Dec. 1 would discuss how NATO could produce mechanisms to de-escalate tensions and also avoid a similar incident in the future.
Commenting of the economic sanctions imposed by Russia on Turkey after the downing of the Russian jet, Davutoğlu said it contradicted Russia’s position when the country had sanctions imposed on it after the crisis with Ukraine over Crimea.
Davutoğlu said Russia had reacted to the sanctions in that incident and Turkey had also stood against any sanctions on Russia, but what they were doing currently towards Turkey was contradictory to their previous position.
“We will not escalate tension,” repeated Davutoğlu.
He added Russians were a friendly people to Turkish people and “for many [Russians], Antalya is a second home.”
“We hope Russia will reconsider these measures, which will be against our common interests,” Davutoğlu said.
This is the complete 1.5 hour documentary which I have uploaded to Youtube as “unlisted” in the hope that they won’t block it for copyright.
Lou Lenart was a friend of mine during the 80s-90s when we were both producing films in Hollywood. Both of us had been totally frustrated by the studios’ disinterest in anything having to do with Israel.
Lou had a whole project developed around his experience founding the IAF. I had a project based on “The Boats of Cherbourg” by Abraham Rabinovich. Both of us were getting the same “sorry, not enough of a market” routine.
Sadly, Lou passed away in July at the age of 94. May his memory be blessed…
In 1948, the new nation of Israel seemed to face certain destruction after the British pulled out of Palestine. Above and Beyond is a fascinating documentary about how the country cobbled together an air force with the help of World War II pilots from around the world. Giving military support to Israel was illegal at the time, but hundreds of American citizens found ways to support the effort.
Director Roberta Grossman interviewed a surprisingly large number of old guys who participated in the fighting. Since there’s not much available footage from the era, the film also features some well-produced CGI recreations of the battle and an elaborate score you don’t often hear in a documentary film. The movie is available now on iTunes and On Demand. We’ve got an exclusive deleted scene and producer Nancy Spielberg talked to us about how she made the film and what it’s like being a movie producer when your brother is, you know, that guy.
Pilots Lou Lenart, Gideon Lichtman and Modi Alon
It’s notable how high your production values are for a historical documentary.
Thank you. That was so critical to us, not to make a film that showed your typical talking heads and a couple of historians. When you’re dealing with interviewees that are 90–94 years old, you don’t have a lot of options. We had to get a little more creative and thankfully we had some incredible partners.
“Above and Beyond” Producer Nancy Spielberg
Some of the staged flying scenes look better than the ones in “Unbroken.”
I’m so glad you said that because I thought that too. But, come on, don’t pick on Angelina. People keep bringing up that we’re a whole female team that made a film about a male topic. And I say, “Yep, me and Angelina, we’re both doing it.?
After watching some of the flying sequences in other movies, whether it was Pearl Harbor or Red Tail, I wanted to make sure we did ours in a different way. We had an aviation consultant that built Paul Allen’s private aviation museum in Seattle. He sat there in the editing room looking over every shot, checked the sound, just to make sure. If there was an engine flying over the water, the sound was the right plane engine over water, not over land. I couldn’t tell the difference, but we tried to go that extra mile so that aviation enthusiasts wouldn’t say, “You guys screwed that up.” But instead we hope they’ll say, “You got it 85% right.”
David Ben-Gurion and Modi Alon
The film has a real feature film-style score, too.
Yes. It feels very big picture. I often say that the whole Spielberg thing is a blessing and a curse. It’s a curse when you go to raise money because people say, “Well, how come your brother is not giving you all the money?” That’s not how I roll. I love my brother, he loves me, but I just don’t do that.
It’s a blessing because I can make phone calls to some people who may not take other people’s phone calls right away and at least have them listen to me. It doesn’t mean they’re going to give me what I want, but at least I have a fighting chance. The truth is that I got my toe in the door, but it was the movie, the story that got my foot in the door.
When it came time for the score, the first guy I went to was Johnny Williams. I knew I could not afford John Williams because he scores with a live 100-piece orchestra with musicians who all need to get paid and feed their families. But he gave me wonderful advice. The other composer I wanted to talk to was Hans Zimmer.
Nancy Spielberg and George Lichter
The funny story is that my husband had once met Steve Kofsky, Hans Zimmer’s partner. He said to Steve, “Listen, you know Jess, our daughter Jess is a singer.” We held on to his card just in case. When this film came up, I called him and I said, “My name is Nancy Katz and you met my husband at synagogue” and he’s like, “Yeah, what do you want? Just email me.”
So I emailed him what I’m doing and he sends me an email back saying, “Call me now.” I called him and he said, “ou don’t understand. In 1948, my uncle and father went from South Africa and volunteered for Israel’s Air Force. What do you want?” That’s what opened the door to Lorne Balfe, who is one of Hans’ right-hand composers and he made a score that really feels so beautiful and big.
As time passes and we get further away from WWII, a lot of stories that were big news at the time seem to be forgotten. Did the American papers cover this story at the time?
There was nothing. These guys broke the law and snuck out of the country to go to Israel. Some of them did get caught and there were court cases and indictments. But there was a US-imposed embargo against sending anything to the combatant parties in the Middle East, which sounds fair except that the British had left Egypt their spoils and sold them Spitfires. And the Iraqi Armies and the Jordanian Armies were very well-equipped. Israel under British rule was not allowed to arm itself and had no planes except a few Piper Cubs. So, if anything, that “fair” embargo only hurt one country.
Filming one of the recreated battle sequences
So these guys snuck out of the country. They made bogus excuses. They had one-way tickets. They did all of this trench coat kind of activity. “Meet a man wearing a flowered lapel” and then they would go to Italy or Switzerland. Then they’d go to Yugoslavia and then they’d get to Czechoslovakia where they were training. When they came back home, they kept it hush-hush because the authorities were still looking for anybody involved in this. So they kept their mouths shut because they didn’t want to get arrested after the fact. It was only later that it started to come out in little bits and pieces, but nobody has really ever laid it out there in a big way.
In fact, people have contacted me saying, “My father was one of these guys. He lived always paranoid that the FBI was gonna come knocking at the door with a file on him.”
The most publicity was about Al Schwimmer because he was indicted (for selling planes to Israel and there was a big trial. A few other people were indicted. If you go through newspaper clippings, maybe you’ll find that, but the other guys snuck back into the country and shared it with their family and friends, but no, they weren’t celebrated. They broke the law.
Israeli fighter plane
When the war started in Palestine, Israel out of nowhere has an Air Force. The American media didn’t dig enough at that point to realize who the pilots were?
This wasn’t a huge Air Force at all and there were volunteers from all over the world. At that time, there weren’t cameras everywhere and flight plans and everybody couldn’t spot where you were just from where you text from. It was easier to sneak around. No one said that you couldn’t go to Israel during that time. In 1948, there were Americans studying at Hebrew University and in Jerusalem.
Things got a little hairy when Israel started to get their act together in forming the Air Force. At first, it was this band of pilots doing whatever they want and saying to the Israelis, “Buddy step out of the way. You don’t know what you’re doing. We know how to fly. You don’t. Back off.” Suddenly Israel was trying to gather these guys up and put things into some type of actual form. When they asked some of the guys to sign papers to join, the guys said, “We can’t sign those papers. In our passport it says, you will not pick up arms for another country.” So that became an issue. They actually ended up finding a way around that, but they’d just about finished fighting by then.
101 Fighter Squadron
The men in our film went over in ’48. Ben-Gurion and some of the people in Israel, with all of the unrest in ’46-’47, they knew there was gonna be a war. So some of these secret operations that happened in the U.S. There were secret operations under the guise of Offices for Land and Labor for Palestine, but they were really gathering pilots and ammunition and money to help Israel. That all happened very quietly. So it still never really came out in a big way. I mean we couldn’t find it in any way in the archives when we were looking for it.
There were rumors. When Buzz Beurling, Canada’s ace top pilot from World War II, He was called the Falcon of Malta. He had more kills in World War II than any other individual. He decided he wanted to go to Israel. Devout Protestant, he wanted to go and help Israel. He was killed in Italy on the way there when he went to test fly a plane and it blew up. Then headlines came out that he was possibly on his way to fight for Palestine. Stuff like that came out, but there was really nothing much that could have been done over here.
I think that the United States, the State Department was basically pushed or pressured by the British to stay out of that situation. But, once it was over, I think the U.S. government sort of let things go. They prosecuted some people. Some people lost their citizenship. Some people paid a $2000 fine, got a slap on the hand. One lady in California, Eleanor Rudnick, was training Israelis how to fly in Bakersfield. She was also indicted, but she didn’t go to jail.
“Above and Beyond” producer Nancy Spielberg, Israel President Shimon Peres and director Roberta Grossman
When I watched the film, I got the impression that quite a few of the American pilots decided to stay in Israel after the fighting.
Most of them actually did come home. A lot of the guys told me that they sort of felt like they were in World War II, they helped liberate the camps, and then all the sudden they see those survivors coming into Israel and they’re gonna walk into a potential genocide. This was a continuation of their service in World War II. A lot of them said, “I came here to help you guys. Now I’m going home. I’ve had enough fun. I’m going home now.” Part of the pilot mentality is this need for the adrenaline. It’s like they’re addicted to that. They need their band of brothers. They need some of the action. It’s really hard to be a celebrated war hero, a pilot, and then go sell insurance.
So most of them actually came back. One of them, Coleman Goldstein, actually stayed for 32 years in Israel. He became one of the first pilots of El Al Airlines. Lou Lenart, another guy, he came back to America. One of them, Giddy Lichtman came back and he was still in the reserves here and he still fought for his country. So he went and broke the law quietly in Israel then came back and still served his country.
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