The Israeli Mauser,After World War II the world was awash in surplus arms and ammunition.  Especiall

The Israeli Mauser,After World War II the world was awash in surplus arms and ammunition.  Especially sought after were Mauser bolt action rifles originating from the former Third Reich.  Many of the millions of surplus rifles left over from the war were sold or given to nations around the world.  One recipient of of a number of Mauser rifles were the Jews who settled in the British mandate of Palestine.In the tinderbox that was post war Palestine there was a huge demand for arms.  Thousands of Mauser rifles were imported to arm both sides.  The most popular were German K98k rifles manufactured for the German Army during the war, however Czech and Belgian Mausers were also very popular.Those used by the Jewish paramilitary group called the Haganah were often military surplus rifles formerly used by Germany during the war.  Typically the Nazi swastika stampings were ground off and replaced with Star of David and Haganah stampings.  The Mauser rifle was especially suited to the Haganah because it was cheap, 8X57 Mauser ammunition was very plentiful, and the rifle was tough, rugged, accurate, and simple to use.After Israeli independence in 1948, the Haganah was reformed into the Israeli Defense Force.  It was then that the Israeli Government contracted the Czech Government and Fabrique Nationale of Belgium to produce new Mauser rifles for the IDF.  By the 1950’s many were converted to 7.62X51 NATO, which was the common caliber of most NATO and western nations.  The Mauser rifle continued to serve the IDF up to the 1970’s. -- source link

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