Jiftach spector

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jiftach Spektor, 1993

Jiftach Spector ( Hebrew יפתח ספקטור; * October 20, 1940 in Petach Tikwa ) is a former Israeli brigadier general , a former fighter pilot and commander at the Tel Nof military airfield and Ramat David .

Life

Jiftach Spektor's father, Zwi Toledano Spektor, was killed in the first year of his son's first major deployment of Hagana troops on the British side during World War II. At that time, Toledano Spektor was in command of a group of 23 volunteers who wanted to destroy fuel tanks used by the German air force in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli by sea from Haifa. As an only child, he separated from his strict mother at an early age and grew up in various foster families.

When he entered the military himself, Spektor soon earned a special reputation as an outstanding fighter pilot. In the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War , he managed to kill twelve enemy machines. He was one of the eight pilots of the squadron who attacked the Iraqi nuclear reactor Tammuz-1 ( Osirak ) east of Baghdad in 1981 in " Operation Opera " . In 1984 he finished his active military service with the rank of brigadier general.

From 1985 to 1990 he was active in the development of military technology and was successful in marketing the helicopter flight control system "HALO", which was produced by the arms company Elbit Systems . From 1990 to 1994 he worked as a building contractor. He later studied at Tel Aviv University and worked on a dissertation on wind energy.

In 2007, in anticipation of his autobiography, which was published shortly thereafter, he made public that he was the pilot who accidentally attacked the USS Liberty , a US Navy reconnaissance ship that the pilot was accompanying him, and during the 1967 Six Day War he had taken for an Egyptian ship in action. 34 crew members were killed and 171 others injured in the attack.

Spektor is married with four children and eleven grandchildren.

“Letter from the Pilots” 2003

In September 2003, Spektor was the leader and highest ranking member of a group of 27 Air Force officers who signed the controversial letter from the pilots to their commander, Dan Chalutz . In it, the signatories refused to continue the illegal killings of Palestinians because they were "illegal and immoral". Among other things, the letter was preceded by the targeted killing of Hamas co-founder Salah Schehade in Gaza by the Israeli air force, in which 14 bystanders died, the majority of them children. In the three years prior to the protest, Israel had killed a total of around 140 Palestinians suspected of organizing terrorist attacks without succeeding in containing the violence.

In response to their open letter, the rebel officers were heavily attacked by the government, military leadership and parts of the Israeli media. Defense Minister Schaul Mofaz accused the signatories of supporting terrorists in a Knesset speech. The parliamentary defense committee called on the armed forces to dismiss the officers and to consider indicting them for "inciting disobedience in wartime". Uri Avnery , longtime activist of the Israeli peace movement, praised the group as "the 27 great."

Spektor, who served as an instructor as Brigadier General of the Reserve, was dismissed by Chalutz in October 2003 after refusing to distance himself from the letter of protest. Chalutz had previously accused the signatories of having "rammed a knife in the back of the combat soldiers and the Israeli democracy". In defending the protest letter in the media, Spektor emphasized that two points were important to him: First, that the shelling of innocent civilians was inherently illegal and immoral, but second, the political situation in which Israel was the stronger party to the conflict was different Oppress nation, lead to such illegal and immoral situations. The other pilots in the group, some of whom were still in active service until they were signed, were also released from the armed forces. The open protest by “Spektors Gruppe” was cited in 2004 by Ariel Sharon's advisor Dov Weisglass as one of several reasons that led the Israeli government to decide to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip - with the aim of freezing the peace process for a long time Point of view to prevent a Palestinian state.

Feature film actor

In the 1966 film Sinaia (English title: Clouds over Israel ) by the director Ilan Eldad (Ivan Lengyel) he played the main role as an Israeli fighter pilot who crashed behind enemy lines in the Sinai War in 1956 and was survivors of an air raid he had previously flown on an Egyptian Bedouin settlement.

Awards

Publications

  • Chalom bi-Techelet-Schachor (A dream in black and sky blue, English title: Phantoms over Israel ) - a novel about the aerial combat in the Yom Kippur War, 1985 (Hebrew).
  • Loud and Clear: The Memoir of an Israeli Fighter Pilot - Autobiography, Zenith Press, Minneapolis 2009, ISBN 978-0-7603-3630-4 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ian Black and Benny Morris: Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services. Grove Press, New York 1991, p. 31 (English)
  2. ↑ Israel: Traitors and Patriots. In: Der Spiegel from October 6, 2003, accessed on November 9, 2018
  3. ^ David Horovitz: Editor's Notes: No Repeat of Osirak. In: Jerusalem Post, July 10, 2008, accessed November 9, 2018
  4. ↑ Iftach Spector: Loud and Clear. Chapter 22: “Halo” (pp. 373–384)
  5. ↑ Amir Oren: Yiftah Spector: I Was the Man Who Shot 'Liberty'. In: Haaretz.com of September 21, 2007, accessed on November 9, 2018 (English)
  6. ↑ Amir Oren: Less Damaging Than a Pelican Hitting a Cockpit. In: Haaretz.com from September 25, 2003, accessed on November 9, 2018 (English)
  7. ^ A b Israel: Cancer of doubt. In: Der Spiegel from September 29, 2003, accessed on November 9, 2018
  8. ↑ a b Chris McGreal: 'We're air force pilots, not mafia. We don't take revenge '. In: The Guardian, December 3, 2003, accessed November 9, 2018.
  9. ↑ Ulrike Putz: Rebellion of the Israeli fighter pilots: "Shame on their wings". In: Spiegel Online of September 26, 2003, accessed November 9, 2018
  10. ↑ Amos Harel: Neither Side in Pilot Protest Has Reason to Be Proud. In: Haaretz.com of September 29, 2003, accessed on November 9, 2018 (English)
  11. ↑ Chris McGreal: Israeli pilot rebels accused of mutiny. In: The Guardian, October 1, 2003, accessed November 9, 2018.
  12. ↑ Uri Avnery: The Magnificent 27. In: Counterpunch of September 29, 2003, accessed on November 9, 2018 (English)
  13. ↑ Israel fires 'refusenik' air force general. In: AlJazeera.com of October 9, 2003, accessed November 9, 2018 (English)
  14. ^ Senior Israeli pilot condemns air strikes that hit civilians. In: ABC of October 21, 2003, accessed on November 9, 2018 (English)
  15. ↑ Ari Shavit : Top PM Aide: Gaza Plan Aims to Freeze the Peace Process. In: Haaretz.com from October 6, 2004, accessed on November 9, 2018 (English)
  16. ↑ Screen: 'Clouds Over Israel' Opens. In: The New York Times, May 10, 1966, accessed November 9, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Spector, Jiftach
ALTERNATIVE NAMES יפתח ספקטור (Hebrew); Spektor, Iftach; Spector, Yiftah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli pilot and general
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Petach Tikva