Jewish Invention Myths: The Desert Eagle

Often, you’ll hear the claim made by some that the infamous – at least if you play any kind of first-person shooter (FPS) games – pistol the Desert Eagle is an Israeli-designed weapon and thus a ‘jewish invention’. (1)

The reality is however that the Desert Eagle was actually a non-jewish American concept and design invented by Bernard White for ‘Magnum Research, Inc.’ in 1982 and filed as a US patent on 4th January 1983 with it being granted on 14th January 1986. (2)

Now despite the claims of jews like Gilad Sabo on Quora that it was the Israelis ‘who made the gun’ based on a second US patent filed in 1985 by Ilan Shalev working for ‘Israel Military Industries’ usurping the Desert Eagle patent of White and ‘Magnum Research, Inc.’ and the idea that White’s weapon ‘wasn’t the Desert Eagle’ in effect. (3)

As Chris Eger explains for ‘Guns.com’ this simply isn’t true:

‘To be sure, although many think the Desert Eagle was an Israeli gun, it came from Minnesota with Magnum Research. With work on the large-framed semi-auto icon going back as far as the 1970s, Bernard White in 1983 filed a 14-page patent for the design of a gas-operated pistol with a rotating bolt and twin recoil springs. A short-stroke piston in a gas cylinder under the fixed barrel drives the slide to the rear.

To be sure, although many think the Desert Eagle was an Israeli gun, it came from Minnesota with Magnum Research. With work on the large-framed semi-auto icon going back as far as the 1970s, Bernard White in 1983 filed a 14-page patent for the design of a gas-operated pistol with a rotating bolt and twin recoil springs. A short-stroke piston in a gas cylinder under the fixed barrel drives the slide to the rear.

Lacking manufacturing capabilities, the design was shopped around with Israel Military Industries finishing it and putting it into production for Magnum Research.

When the original Desert Eagle Mark I headed to market in 1984, it was advertised as "invented, patented and marketed" by Magnum Research and "manufactured and developed" by IMI. Available in a 10+1 capacity .357 Mag, or (starting in 1986) a 9+1 .44 Mag, the beefy pistol had a 6-inch barrel. It was marketed for hunting, self-defense, silhouette shooting, and general target practice.’ (4)

In other words: White invented and design the Desert Eagle, while Shalev and ‘Israel Military Industries’ took White’s design and modified it to enable it to be mass-produced.

So no, the Israelis didn’t invent the Desert Eagle: Bernard White did!

References

(1) For example: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/2a9slt/til_the_desert_eagle_is_a_israelimade_weapon/?rdt=64894

(2) https://web.archive.org/web/20210224052322/http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=4563937.PN.&OS=PN/4563937&RS=PN/4563937

(3) https://www.quora.com/Is-the-Desert-Eagle-essentially-the-US-or-an-Israeli-weapon

(4) https://www.guns.com/news/2021/09/21/the-history-behind-the-desert-eagle