Except for a few Israelis that had experience with the RAF during WWII, Israel had few pilots to fly the fighters. Fortunately there were many foreign volunteers who were willing to serve the new nation and pilot the aircraft.
1948 Fighters
This is a lineup of veterans from the 1948 War of Independence. The early years of the IAF saw the Israelis searching for aircraft from throughout the world. Planes were smuggled out of the U.S. and Britain, and Czechoslovakia even provided a version of the German Bf 109 Messerschmitt.