I just finished a book called Angels in the Sky by Robert Gandt. It's about the volunteers who went to fly for the new Israeli air force in 1948 when the various arab countries invaded the newly created Israel. It's a rather interesting story though the author was a bit too detail oriented. Still, this was a group of mostly WW2 vets who came to Israel to help them survive. Some were Jews who believed in the cause, some were just chasing adventure, some were soldiers of fortune -- but they became the start of the Israeli air force. Ironically, their first set of fighters were Messerschmidts they bought from Czechoslovakia. So you have Jews from what would become one of America's main allies flying German airplanes bought from a communist country.