Destiny
Genres: Drama, Thriller, History, War.
Tagline: When the world was saying no, they said yes.
Plot: A ragtag group of young pilots from around the
world take on the Arab Empire and win.
Short Synopsis: Hollywood in 1948 is a boom town. World
War II is over and it’s party time. Lou LENART is
26, ruggedly handsome, lean and muscular. He is having
the time of his life, dating gorgeous actresses. He has
just gotten out of the Marines, where he flew fighters.
All his friends are in business, making money, and asking
him to join them in this and that enterprise.
But the news stories are making his heart ache. He hears
there are still millions of homeless refugees wandering
in Europe. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish children are
living in camps, often the same camps the Nazis put them
in. No country will accept them. Lou hears that the UN is
going to recognize Israel as a homeland for the Jewish
people in 5 months, on May 15. Then Azzam Pasha, the
Secretary-General of the Arab League, declares a
“war of extermination” against the people of
Israel. Military experts are saying that the Jews will
last at most two weeks, because they have no army and no
air force, while the Arabs have been fully supplied by
the British with tanks, artillery, armored cars, and
warplanes.
Lou knows that somehow he has to help. His grandmother
was murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz. As a fighter
pilot, his instinct is to get a squadron together and fly
in Israel’s defense. Lou buys an old cargo plane,
under the guise of starting an airline, and flies first
to New Jersey, then Italy, then Israel. Along the way he
meets other young fighter pilots, and together they form
a brotherhood devoted to creating an air force for
Israel. They are opposed by every nation – there is
a worldwide embargo against weapons for Israel. They are
hunted by the FBI, British agents, and Arab assassins.
The pilots manage to smuggle four Nazi-surplus fighters
from Czechoslovakia to Israel. They name their squadron
“Angels of Death,” in honor of the Angel in
the Exodus story, that God sent to persuade the Egyptians
to let the Jews go.
It is now May 29, 1948 and Arab armies are rampaging
through the newborn State of Israel. An Egyptian army of
12,000 men is 16 miles from Tel Aviv and about to conquer
the city. There are only a few hundred Israeli troops to
stop them. The Egyptians are parked bumper-to-bumper at a
bridge, their hundreds of armored cars, fuel trucks, and
ammo trucks all in a line. Suddenly out of the late
afternoon sun, four warplanes painted with the Star of
David appear, bombing and strafing. This is the first
combat mission of the Israel Air Force, led by Lou. It
stuns the Egyptians into abandoning their attack on Tel
Aviv. This first crucial victory gives Israel
desperately-needed time to equip its soldiers and
consolidate its defenses.
This is a true story, as dictated by Lou Lenart, and
validated by the official archives of the Israel Air
Force. Lou’s wingman that day was Ezer Weizman, who
later becomes head of the IAF and then President of
Israel.