Warner Bros. is teaming up with Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, The Social Network) to develop a film about the unlikely father of the Israel Air Force, Al Schwimmer.
Sorkin will write the script and possibly direct the film. The movie will partly be based on the article America’s Greatest Gift To Israel, which was published in Business Insider.
The movie will tell the story of Al Schwimmer, a post-WWII arms smuggler who helped create Israel’s air force, which helped the fledgling country survive.
It’s explained: “Schwimmer was a decorated World War II veteran from Connecticut. In 1948 and on the heels of the Holocaust, a homeland for the Jewish State was being carved out of Arab territory, and countries like Egypt and Jordan readied to drive out these new neighbors.
“America, not eager to inflame the Cold War in Middle East countries, publicly announced it would not provide military aid to Israel. Schwimmer masterminded a covert, illegal, international operation that the article describes as one part Argo and one part Mission: Impossible.
“Schwimmer aligned with the Haganah, the Jewish underground paramilitary, and put together a rag tag group of WWII vets who defied an American embargo to smuggle 125 military planes and more than 50,000 weapons to Palestine.
“The volunteer accomplices included Bugsy Siegel’s publicist, mobster Meyer Lansky, Pee-wee Herman’s dad Milton Rubenfeld, and Frank Sinatra.
“Many of the rifles and other arms came from Czechoslovakia, and were used by the Nazis. Accounts say that this action helped save Israel by giving the country a fighting chance in the war by establishing air superiority.
“Later, Schwimmer and accomplices turned themselves in; most of them were Jewish, and argued that seeing the abject cruelty and genocide perpetrated against the Jews in the Holocaust steeled their resolve to make a righteous moral choice.
“While they were spared prison terms, Schwimmer and others were fined and stripped of their civil rights. Schwimmer refused to seek a pardon at the time, but was pardoned anyway by President Bill Clinton in 2001. He died a decade later.”
The prevailing opinion was their efforts prevented a second Holocaust.
This sounds like it will make a great film project for Sorkin to be a part of. If you want to learn more about Schwimmer and his heroic exploits there are documentaries you can watch including the 2015 PBS doc A Wing and a Prayer, which features interviews with Schwimmer and many of the surviving troops.
Source: Deadline
