The second need, once Israeli statehood was imminent following the UN Partition Plan resolution of November 1947, was to find persons skilled in the military specialties that Palestinian Jews lacked, since war with the surrounding Arab nations was a virtual certainty. Some 240 Americans and Canadians were to serve on these 12 ships between 19. The 12 ships were purchased by American Jews, acting in concert with Palestinian Jewish authorities, and had largely American and Canadian crews, both Jewish and non-Jewish.
Of 68 Aliyah Bet ships attempting to break the British blockade following World War II, 12 were American. This rescue operation was called Aliyah Bet ("Immigration B," the term used for clandestine immigration). Ships had to be quietly purchased, then crews had to be found who were willing to man the ships and risk British imprisonment to smuggle the "illegal" immigrants into Palestine. At the time, there was a British naval blockade preventing all but a handful (the quota was 1,250 Jewish immigrants per month) from coming to the British-controlled Palestine mandate.
Their first need was to rescue several hundred thousand Holocaust survivors trapped in displaced persons camps throughout Europe. Jewish Displaced Persons Camp, Western Europe, 1947
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