Czecho Gets An IDF Merkava Tank

**Pisis** · 12-26-2006 06:12 PM

Originally Posted by http://jta.org/page_view_breaking_story.asp?intid=6151

Czech museum gets old Israeli tank
Israel gave a Merkava Mk1 tank to a Czech museum.

Last used in the 1982 Lebanon invasion, the tank was donated to the Military Technical Museum in Lesany.

Ales Knizek, director of the Czech Military Historical Institute, told the daily newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes that the museum was able to get the Merkava because “if it hadn’t been for the help of Czechoslovakia, Israel would have been destroyed shortly after its founding.”

Knizek was referring to the fact that Czechoslovakia sold arms to Israel before and during the 1948 War of Independence, despite a U.N. embargo.

The weapons were crucial to Israel’s survival.

Czechoslovakia also trained troops to fight in the Israeli army right after World War II, including air force pilots.

Czech Republic is the only country now, that posseses an Israeli tank. I read that article, and the Museum had to promise that they won't show the interior of the tank because it is still secret.