Schwimmer’s choice
There are times in history when to act morally one must break the law. Al Schwimmer, who passed away Saturday at the age of 94, understood this.
In the years leading up to the War of Independence he quickly realized that doing what was right and doing what was lawful were not the same. He disregarded an arms embargo imposed on what was then Palestine and helped prepare the evolving Jewish state to defend itself by gaining aerial dominance.
Thanks to Schwimmer’s American-based arms network – with branches in Hawaii, Panama, Czechoslovakia and Mexico – Israel successfully rebuffed the onslaught of Palestinian militias as well as an offensive launched by the combined armies of neighboring Arab nations during the 1948-49 war. Under his direction the network borrowed and sometimes stole dozens of fighter aircraft, recruited scores of battletrained American and British pilots and mechanics and shipped tons of ammunition that proved critical to the war effort.
Yet Schwimmer’s efforts were seen by the US as criminal. Declassified FBI documents quoted by The Forward in 2001 indicate that Schwimmer was suspected of illegally transporting weapons, some of which were allegedly stolen from US Navy ordnance dumps. For some time Schwimmer managed to stay one step ahead of federal investigators and export authorities. But in February 1950 the law caught up with him. A Federal District Court in Los Angeles convicted Schwimmer of conspiracy to violate the US Neutrality Act and export control laws.
Federal judge Thomas Madden personally supported getting planes out of the US “to do the job that some had said they should have been doing.” Nevertheless, he was compelled by law to fine Schwimmer $10,000 and strip him of his civil rights. It was not until 2001 that Schwimmer, who never agreed to apologize, would be pardoned by US president Bill Clinton for his “crimes.”