Title: Weird Ways Israel Won its War of Independence

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It’s no secret. Israel is often synonymous with high-tech wizardry and, as a tiny nation about the size of New Jersey, it clearly punches above its weight class economically, scientifically, technologically and militarily.

But back during their fight for independence in 1948, the Israelis were underdogs in many ways.  They were outgunned, facing multiple trained armies. Not a gambler in Vegas would have bet on the Jews.  

But what’s important to know here, is that what the Jews lacked in sheer power, they made up for in resourcefulness and creativity. To paraphrase “Hamilton,” “just like their country they were young, scrappy and hungry.”  They managed to make use of things like the Davidka, a loud, inaccurate and mostly ineffective weapon. They also spent their nights secretly building dirt roads, and, according to legend, dropping soda bottles out of planes. That’s right. Soda bottles.

Crappy weapons, dirt roads and recycling?  

You know the biblical story of David and Goliath, right? Little, scrawny guy takes on the hulk with nothing but a slingshot.

Why the bible lesson? Well, during the Arab-Israeli War in 1948, we had a David and Goliath situation on our hands:  The Jews, like I mentioned before, were a scrappy bunch. They had their underground militias, the Haganah and Irgun, which later became the small official army of the new state of Israel.  The Jewish forces then were made up, in large part, by people who had just survived the Holocaust only a few years earlier.

Meanwhile, local Arabs were supported by the Arab Legion, Transjordan’s well-equipped, British-trained army.

Now, what we’re focusing on is the early portion of the Arab-Israeli war before the Israelis had to fend off the armies of several surrounding Arab countries. Still, the situation was dire with Jews finding themselves outmatched against the professionally trained Arab Legion. The Jews fancied themselves David to the Arabs’ Goliath. So, they needed their slingshot. Instead, they got the davidka, a weapon named, in part, after the biblical story.

Modeled after a primitive Czech weapon, the davidka looked pretty unimpressive. Harmless.

Anyway, with something like the davidka, looks can be deceiving. but actually, with the davidka, the look told pretty much the whole story. It was a 3-inch spigot mortar with low explosive power and unreliable accuracy. But it was loud. In fact, it detonated so thunderously that it created panic among Arab troops. Historians are still unsure as to how much damage the davidka actually caused, but its real value was scaring off the enemy.

Now, only six davidkas were made but they played a crucial role in early victories for the Israelis, particularly during one decisive battle in the mountain-top city of Safed, which had been home to a thriving Jewish community since the 1500s. With Jews and Arabs wrestling for control of Safed, particularly the Citadel, an ancient Crusader fortress and the city’s highest point, Jewish fighters needed an edge.

They turned to the davidka. The Jewish fighters stationed davidkas in the city’s Jewish quarter and attempted to shell Arab positions. The blasts the davidka produced caused the Arab troops and many Arab civilians to run for the hills. They evacuated the city, leading to a huge victory for the Israelis.

The Arab troops were so terrified by the noise of the davidka that rumors quickly swirled that the Jews were developing a new secret weapon; some even thought the Jews had harnessed an ancient, dark, magical power with ties to The Occult. I’m kidding. But some thought they were developing an atomic weapon. They weren’t. Or were they? No, they weren’t.  

One key weapon the Israelis did possess was a makeshift air force. But don’t get too excited. With the US and the British banning arms shipments to Israel, the young nation turned to soviet bloc nations, desperate to make arms deals. So, the Israelis ended up with a small fleet of poorly conditioned, primitive Czech planes to halt the advances of Arab troops on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

When Israeli volunteer pilots ran out of bombs, they didn’t run out of ideas. They got creative, and dropped seltzer bottles in lieu of artillery. That’s right. As they fell, the bottles made a loud whistling noise that sounded something like bombs dropping. The bottles also burst on impact and made one hell of an explosion. Again, much like the davidka, the noise alone created the illusion of more firepower that the Jews actually had.

But in the Battle for Jerusalem, the 4,000 year old city and Israel’s future capital was under siege. And the Israelis appeared out of answers. In early 1948, Arab forces took control of key strategic vantage points overlooking the city. See, Jerusalem is situated on a plateau with mountains surrounding it.

With Arab troops also blockading the main road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, it became increasingly difficult for the Jews to get arms and supplies into the city; things as elementary as food and water. With their supply line severed, the Jews of Jerusalem were in deep trouble. Panic set in. Food rationing was implemented. The allowance per person per day was set at two gallons of water per person for all bathing and drinking, and three slices of bread per person. Residents were on the verge of starvation. Again, against Goliath, they needed a miracle, a David. You know. A hero.

When you think of the heroes in Israel’s fight for independence, you probably think of Ben-Gurion and his crazy hair, Moshe Dayan and his eyepatch… you know, the locals. But it was actually an American who ended the siege of Jerusalem. Ever heard of Mickey Marcus? 

Mickey Marcus was a bright, athletic kid who grew up in Manhattan on the Lower East Side with Jewish-Romanian immigrant parents. A decorated West Point graduate, he fought for the U.S. in World War Two and became an advisor to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman. In 1947, Ben-Gurion turned to Marcus and asked him to find an American to advise the newly formed Israeli army.  When he couldn’t find anyone willing to take the job, he volunteered.  The U.S. War Department allowed it but under the condition Marcus operated under a different name.

In short order, “Michael Stone” - a slightly more intimidating name than Mickey Marcus - became the first general of the Israeli army. He instituted a U.S. Army-inspired structure and took control of the Jerusalem forces in the spring of 1948 to help end the siege.

Initially, he attempted two failed operations against Arab Legion forces to reopen the supply lines along the main road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Then he set out on a new path, literally. Rather than try to re-open the main supply line, he decided to build a brand new, secret road--the Burma Road.

Named after a World War Two supply route in China, the Burma Road to Jerusalem was built mostly in secret at night, in the dark, along the imposing, rocky slopes of the Judean hills, and under the watchful eyes of Arab Legion troops stationed in fortresses dotted along the route. 

Using hundreds of Jerusalem quarrymen, volunteers, soldiers, bulldozers and a handful of donkeys, the Israelis constructed the makeshift road along a narrow footpath worn by centuries of shepherds, filled with rocks, pits and ravines. After two weeks, slow moving supply vehicles were able to make the 6-hour trip. Arab snipers did gun down a small number of Israeli road workers once they spotted activity, but couldn’t shell the supply vehicles because crucial parts of the road were cleverly built out of the line of sight of enemy artillery. Eventually, convoys carried as much as one hundred tons of cargo every night over the new Burma Road, effectively ending the siege in Jerusalem just before a United Nations truce in June of 1948.

General Mickey Marcus was tragically lost to friendly fire just before that temporary truce. Moshe Dayan and others accompanied his body back to the United States for burial. But Marcus and the Burma road, like the davidka, were memorialized. The actor Kirk Douglas,  - whose stage name was more intimidating than his real name, “Issur Danielovitch” - played Marcus in the 1966 Hollywood movie “Cast A Giant Shadow”. The Israelis and their legendary resourcefulness was enough to merit a film adaptation with stars like Douglas, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra and Yul Brynner.

Hollywood loves a good underdog story and the story of the Israelis outsmarting the Arab Legion with loud noises, seltzer bottles, and by moonlighting as a construction crew delivers. 

But with all its successes, its modernity, is Israel still an underdog? It’s easy to zoom in on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and dismiss that as a ridiculous question. But let’s zoom out for a second. When it was established, Israel certainly had the rooting interest of an underdog, right? Most of the international community, as evidenced by the fateful 1947 UN vote, supported the Jews, still reeling from the Holocaust, having a nation in their ancestral homeland.

You see, Israel’s ascension to a country known for high-tech mastery and military might isn’t by accident. It’s out of necessity. It’s because Israel is surrounded by countries whose views have always ranged from “not thrilled” with its existence to openly calling for its destruction.

So, to be clear, Israel had widespread support when things looked bad, real bad. When they were relying on loud bangs and soda bottles to try and win a war. And now… well, I guess the question becomes this: is support for Israel contingent upon it being a classic underdog, an entity that’s easy to root for because it’s expected to lose? That seems like a viewpoint that’s lacking nuance and context. This isn’t a sport. It’s not March Madness. This is real life.

That’s some food for thought. Anyway, drop your comments below and don’t forget to subscribe. Until next time.