Blue Sky’s over Israel
There was a time when the blue sky’s over Israel was home to Turkish, British, and other aircraft.
Starting in 1911 the Star and the Cresent ruled the skies till being defeated by British and Commonwealth troops during the First World War 1914-18. The year 1917 saw the end of five hundred years of Turkish rule in Israel. Then it was the turn of the British to hold sway over Palestine when for a time the blue skies reverberated to the sound of British spitfires. Then one dark night in February 1946 a combined operation took place with Lehi and Irgun units attacking three British military airfields destroying dozens of fighter aircraft as they sat all lined up like ducks in a row.
This daring action contributed to the breaking of British power and prestige breaking the British will to continue their mandate for Palestine. Less than two years later the Union Jack would be lowered in Palestine as the sunset on the British Empire. There would be no more British planes in Jewish skies in fact except for a short time in the 1948 war of Independence when Arab aircraft bombed and strafed Jewish targets at will this would be the last time a foreign power dominated Israels airspace.
Today Jews look to the skies confident in the knowledge that the F-16 and F-35 speeding past their roofs of Zion are “Jewish planes” and they remind us how far we have come as a people in such a short time since our return home.
“Kheil HaAvir Chai!”
