Binyamin Kahane

Binyamin Kahane was born in Jaffa in what was then the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, an administrative district of the Ottoman Empire, to a family with roots in the First Aliyah (immigration) from Belarus. Kahane was the youngest of three brothers and a sister. He attended a trade school in Tel Aviv, an agricultural high school (Mikve Israel), the Polytechnic School, and the Montefiore Technical School in Tel Aviv.

Both of Kahane's parents were involved with Zionist movements: His mother, Miriam Kahane, was part of the Bilu movement, a small pioneer group brought to Israel and led by her cousin, Israel Belkind. Another cousin was Fannie Belkind, Avshalom Feinberg's mother. Kahane's Father, Ephraim, assisted the Nili underground in its activities to support the British forces during World War I. Because of his familiarity with the Sinai Peninsula and the routes in Palestine (and also as a carriage driver and owner), he was selected by Avshalom Feinberg to accompany him on his first trip to the British lines in Egypt through the northern Sinai in December 1915. Kahane engaged in boxing, fencing and Jujitsu, but his main activity was in the motorcycle riding. He took part in many riding competitions, and according to press reports from 1934, he was "one of the best motorcycle riders in the country." He won first place in the first motorcycle race held in the dunes of Rishon Letzion. In 1934 Kahane co-organized and co-led a motorcycle tour to Jewish communities in Europe to encourage immigration to Palestine.

Betar motorcyclists meeting with Ze'ev Jabotinsky in Paris, 1934

He joined the Betar movement in 1927, and like many members of Betar, proceeded to join the Irgun upon its establishment. He received training and participated in operations intended to help secure Jewish settlements. He applied his skills as a motorcyclist as part of reprisals conducted by the Irgun during the Great Arab Revolt. After the establishment of the Notrim, Kahane joined it and attended its command training course in 1937.

Kahane was an avid aviator since his early twenties. His first aerial activity was gliding as a member of The Aero Club of Israel. Devoting himself to aviation, Kahane developed extraordinary skills and achieved notoriety, also turning to training others along the Mediterranean coast. On his website "Air Space" that specializes in aviation history, Avinoam Misnikov cites that in April 1938, at the gliding camp of Children Village, Kahane reached an altitude of 1,250 feet above the point of origin while flying a Chaika glider. In 1936 Kahane participated in the first gliding training course sponsored by the Palestine Aviation Club and held at Givat Brenner.

Kahane gliding over Bat Yam beach

The Irgun opened a flying school at Lod airport headed by Moshe Haim Katz. Kahane's pilot's license had the serial number 6. Kahane was the only graduate who kept his license current, leading to his becoming a pilot in the Israeli Air Force later on.

Kahane getting his pilot's license on April 21, 1939

Betar estimated that there were two thousand Jewish pilots around the world who could form the basis of a network of clubs and pilots who could be recruited for action when needed. To that effect, the Pilots Club Tel Aviv was established, and an RWD-15 single engine plane was purchased in Poland, using contributions from the Jewish community. On August 20, 1939, three pilots (Abraham Schechterman, Yitzhak Barash and Kahane) were sent to Poland to bring the plane to Israel. World War II, which broke out only eleven days later, prevented their arrival in Poland, and the plane was never delivered.

In an attempt to contribute to the war effort against the Nazis, Kahane applied to become a volunteer pilot to the Royal Air Force, but was turned down. Continued efforts by the Irgun to secure a plane finally succeeded. In 1941 a two-seater Czechoslovak Zlin XII was purchased in Egypt with funds from a prominent local Jew. Kahane was sent to Egypt to fly the plane from Cairo to Lod.

Chronic lack of resources made it impossible to keep the plane operational, so it was placed in makeshift storage in a Tel-Aviv basement. Abraham Schechterman was recruited to manage the potassium factories in Sodom in 1943. His condition for accepting the position was that an air link to the factory had to be established: an airstrip was to be built, the plane was to be taken out of storage and based at the factory with a pilot. Management finally relented, and Kahane was appointed the company pilot.

Schechterman writes in his memoirs:

The airport was beneficial in light of the many floods that take place in the area regularly. Most importantly, the air link saved the plant from surrendering during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War directly causing the factory to remain inside the Israeli border. Thanks to the airport Sodom could receive supplies and equipment that kept it going. The only connection to the outside world was via air, that allowed not only to hold Sodom, but also to expand beyond it to Ein Gedi to its north and Eilat to its south.

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