The First Israeli Weapons Procurement Behind the Iron Curtain: The Decisive Impact on the War of Independence

A fundamental question still asked about the circumstances that enabled the IDF to emerge victorious from Israel’s War of Independence concerns the quantity of weapons possessed by the two sides in the conflict. Although the balance of arms at the war’s outset was decisively in favor of the Arab states, the leadership of the newly established state of Israel managed to close this gap. This article highlights the key role played by Czechoslovakia, which had only then begun its transformation into a Soviet satellite state, as the chief arms supplier of the IDF during Israel’s War of Independence. It considers the process by which the relationship was formed and the arms acquired, the key players involved, and the procured arms’ decisive impact on the hostilities.