- It's no secret Israel is often synonymous
with high-tech wizardry, and is a tiny nation
about the size of New Jersey.
It clearly punches above it's weight class economically,
scientifically, technologically and militarily.
But, factor in 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 dropping soda bottles out of planes.
That's right, soda bottles.
Crappy weapons, dirt roads and recycling,
how does that help you win a war?
(upbeat music)
You know the story of David and Goliath, right?
Little scrawny guy takes on the hulk
with nothing but a sling shot.
Why the Bible lesson?
Well, during the Arab-Israeli War in 1948
we had kind of 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 the Irgun, which later became
a 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 the Jews
finding themselves outmatched against
the professionally trained Arab legion.
The Jews fancied themselves the David
to the Arab's 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
and almost harmless.
Anyway, with something like the Davidka
looks can be kind of deceiving,
but actually with the Davidka the look told pretty much
the whole story.
It was three 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 pretty 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 the early victories
for the Israelis, particularly during
one decisive battle in the mountain-top city of Tzfat
which had been home to a thriving Jewish community
since the 1500s.
With Jews and Arabs wrestling for control of Tzfat,
particularly the Citadel, an ancient crusader fortress
and the cities highest point, Jewish fighters
needed an edge.
They turned to the Davidka.
The Jewish fighters stationed Davidkas
in the cities Jewish quarter and attempted
to shell Arab positions.
The blast 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 totally kidding, but some actually thought
they were developing an atomic weapon,
they weren't, or were they?
No, no, they actually weren't.
Anyway, one key weapon the Israelis did possess
was a make-shift air force, but don't get too excited.
With the U.S. and British banning arm shipments to Israel
the young nation turned to Soviet Block countries
desperate to make arms deals. So the Israelis ended up
with a small fleet of poorly conditioned
old 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
and 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
than 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 for all bathing and drinking
and three slices of bread.
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 eye patch,
you know, the locals.
But it was actually an American who ended
the siege of Jerusalem.
Ever heard of Mickey Marcus?
Well, 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 II 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 himself.
The U.S. War Department allowed it,
but under the condition that Marcus operate
under a different name.
In short order, Michael Stone, a slightly more
intimidating name then 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 supply lines
along the main road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Then, he set out on a new path, literally.
Rather then try to reopen the main-supply line,
he decided to build a brand new secret road
that he called the Burma Road.
Named after a World War II 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 quarry men
volunteers, soldiers, bulldozers,
and a handful of donkeys, the Israelis constructed
a make-shift 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 six-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 the enemy artillery.
Eventually, convoys carried as much
as 100 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.
Now, the truce didn't actually end the war.
It was only temporary, because the war
would go on for another nine months.
Unfortunately, General Mickey Marcus
was tragically lost to friendly fire
just before the truce.
Moshe Dayan, and others, accompanied his body
back to the United States for burial,
but Marcus and the Burma Road,
much like the Davidka, were memorialized.
The Israelis' legendary resourcefulness
was enough to merit a film adaptation,
the 1966 Hollywood movie, "Cast A Giant Shadow,"
with stars like John Wayne, Frank Sinatra,
Yul Brynner, and playing Mickey Marcus, Kirk Douglas,
whose stage name was also slight more intimidating
than his real name, Issur Danielovitch.
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 excesses and it's modernity,
is Israel still an underdog, a David?
Well, when it was established Israel certainly had
the rooting interest of an underdog.
Most of the international community,
as evidenced by the pivotal 1947 U.N. vote,
supported the Jews still reeling from the Holocaust
having a nation in their ancestral homeland,
but not Israel's neighbors.
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.
Israel is surrounded by countries whose views
have always ranged from not thrilled
with its existence, to openly calling
for its destruction, which has forced it
to take on what some people might consider
the role of Goliath.
So, to be clear, Israel had wide-spread support
when things looked bad, really 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.
After all, this is real life.
Food for thought.