Gideon Shochat
Gideon Shochat was a Royal Air Force pilot, colonel in the Israeli Air Force, and a former Israeli ambassador to Malawi. Shochat's daughter Alona was married to Israeli singer Arik Einstein.
Early life
Geda Shochat was born in Ottoman Haifa in 1912 to Zionist activists and politicians Manya and Israel Shochat. He grew up in Kfar Giladi, a kibbutz founded in part by his parents, and was educated at the Mikveh Israel boarding school near Tel Aviv.
In 1941, Shochat volunteered for the RAF and was sent to Asmara and Eritrea to work as a machinist, and after a few months, returned to Mandatory Palestine. In 1943, he finished pilot training in Rhodesia and served as a pilot in Egypt. Near the end of World War II, he served in Karachi as a commander for a squadron of B-24 Liberators.
Shochat joined the Israeli 103 [Squadron (Israel)|103 Squadron] in 1948. He was involved in Operation Velvetta to smuggle aircraft to Israel from Czechoslovakia for the Israeli War of Independence.
Later life
In 1964, Shochat was appointed as the Israeli ambassador to Malawi. Shochat died in 1966 and was given a military funeral at Kiryat Shaul Cemetery.