A New Beginning
The War of Independence
Israel built a bypass route called the Burma Road, a reference to a similar road built into China during World War II, and even erected bridges so that it would be passable. This was an unbeliev- ably heroic achievement and was accomplished with limited pro- visions and supplies. Some members of our group were wounded in the process, but none were killed. However, a tragedy occurred in connection with this road. Colonel David (Mickey) Marcus, an American Jew who had volunteered to fight for Israel, was walk - ing in a military zone when a refugee who had just been recruit- ed stopped him and asked for the password. When he was unable to provide it for some reason, or he answered in English instead of Hebrew, the recruit shot him. A number of books were written about the incident and it became the subject of the movie Cast a Giant Shadow . Next, our group was transferred to the Negev to join the battle against the Egyptians and assigned to guard a particular road. The avant-garde of the Egyptian forces had advanced very close to Tel Aviv and were confident that they would have an easy time getting through the rest of Israel. After all, the Israelis had very few weap- ons, just the two cannons from the English tanks, some homemade mines, and old weapons. The Egyptian advance troops had reached an intersection of two roads at Abu Agheila near Tel Aviv. They never expected the Palmach to come through the forbidding desert. But the Palmach cleared an abandoned ancient Roman road, improvised as needed, and moved in from behind them, cutting the Egyptians off from their base, and lay there silently in wait. Suspecting nothing, as- suming that they were in Egyptian-held territory and that no Jews were there, the Egyptians kept coming, including a cousin of the country’s King Farouk himself. My friends who where there de- scribed how he was all decked out in a fancy uniform with tassels and epaulets. The Palmach ambushed them. The King’s cousin got out of his car and signaled for them to stop — he thought the attackers were were
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