, a Czechoslovak-built version of the
Bf 109. (left) visiting Israel, accompanied by
Shimon Peres, Director General of the Ministry of Defense (middle), and Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Ezer Weizman (right) with a
IAF Mirage III in the background, 1958. After the establishment of the State of
Israel, Weizman was a pilot for the
Haganah in the
1948 Arab–Israeli War. He was the commander of the Negev Air Squadron near Nir-Am. In May 1948, he learned to fly the
Avia S-199 (Messerschmitt Bf 109) at the
České Budějovice air base in
Czechoslovakia (
Operation Balak) and participated in Israel's first fighter mission (executed by
its "first fighter squadron"), a ground attack on an Egyptian column advancing toward
Ad Halom near the Arab town of
Isdud south of Tel Aviv. In a battle between Israeli and neutral British RAF aircraft on 7 January 1949, he flew one of four Israeli
Spitfire fighters that attacked 19 British fighters, which were on a rescue mission in Egypt searching for four aircraft on a reconnaissance flight that had been destroyed in an earlier IAF attack, with the IAF pilots falsely claiming the RAF aircraft were attacking Israeli ground forces. An RAF
Hawker Tempest was shot down by the IAF, resulting in the death of the pilot. Weizman joined the
Israel Defense Forces and served as the Chief of Operations on the General Staff. In 1951 he attended the
RAF Staff College, Andover in England. Upon his return he became commander of
Ramat David. In 1967, he directed the early morning surprise air attacks against the Egyptian air bases, which resulted in giving the Israelis total air superiority over the
Sinai battlefields by totally destroying the Egyptian Air Force in 3 hours. A total of 400 enemy planes were destroyed by the Israeli Air Force on the first day of the
Six-Day War. Although he became the IDF's Deputy Chief of Staff in 1966, he retired from military service in 1969. ==Political career==