Last update - 00:00 19/09/2007
IDF promotes legendary pilot 34 years after his death
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondnent
34 years after he died when his plane crashed into the Mediterranean during the Yom Kippur War, legendary Air Force pilot Arlosor (Zurik) Lev was promoted to the rank of brigadier general Tuesday.
In a ceremony in the office of the chief of staff in the Israel Defense Forces Tel Aviv headquarters, Lev's family widow and five surviving children were presented with the general's ranks that he would have received had he not died in action.
The IDF said it took the step of promoting Lev posthumously in response to a request from his family. The request was prompted by a similar case during the Second Lebanon War, in which a pilot on the verge of promotion was posthumously granted the higher rank.
Avi Lev, Zurik's brother, said: "When we received the announcement of the decision to promote Zurik I was a bit confused. Zurik was not a man of ranks. He accepted the request of Air Force commander Benny Peled to head [the Air Force's] manpower branch. If he had only wanted rank he would have immediately started the job, but it was important to him to stay at his base in order to complete a few more matters. He was not in any hurry. He loved his wing, his soldiers and everyone loved him. He was a commander of a different breed. Everyone, not just the pilots, loved him, including the technicians and mechanics. Senior Air Force officers said that every plane he piloted became the best plane in the Air Force," Avi Lev said.
Colonel Arlosor Lev was commander of the Ramat David air base when the Yom Kippur War broke out. On the fourth day of the war, October 9,1973, showing leadership and setting a personal example to other pilots, Lev volunteered to join a Skyhawk formation attacking Egyptian forces in the Port Said area. He took the place of a pilot who had been killed earlier that day.
After bombing the targets, his plane crashed into the sea about a kilometer from shore. The IDF conducted widespread search and rescue operations in the area, but neither Lev's body nor the aircraft were found. Further searches, also fruitless, were conducted after the signing of the peace treaty with Egypt. He is listed as "a fallen soldier whose burial place is unknown."
The Lev family suffered a number of tragedies over the years, of which Zurik's death was only the first. In 1975, only a few hours after the memorial ceremony marking the second anniversary of his death, Lev's 13-year old son, Ehud, died of a severe respiratory attack.
In 1981 his son-in-law, Major Yoram Eitan, was killed in a training accident in his Skyhawk plane.
Lev was born in 1933, the first child born in the agricultural settlement of Kfar Bilu, near Rehovot. He was named after Zionist leader Chaim Arlosoroff, who was murdered a few months earlier. After studying at the Kadoorie Agricultural School he joined the IDF's Nahal Brigade, but he switched to a pilot's course. Following the completion of training in 1953 Lev began flying Spitfires and Mosquitoes, before moving on to jets. He trained on French warplanes, partly in what was then French Algeria.
Even though he advanced to the heights of the IAF, Lev continued to dream about farming. Since the IAF told him repeatedly that they did not need farmers, he decided to study economics. His final seminar thesis was on the contribution of bees to agriculture. In honor of this work, and of Lev himself, the Israel Beekeepers Association awards a scholarship in his name every year.
The ceremony marking the promotion was presided over by IDF Chief of Staff Lieut.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, IAF Commander Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Shkedi and the Chief of the Human Resources Branch, Maj.-Gen. Elazar Stern. Also in attendance were the head of the IAF manpower group, Brig.-Gen. Rami Ben Efraim, previous and current commanders of the Ramat David base, and friends.