Deal with "White Israelis"?

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So APL made the following statement: We’ll go with the legendary “white Israeli” pieces, ...


What's legendary about them, for good or ill?  Does ink smear on them?  Was white the original color or did they start with blue (was it) or vice versa?

From what I have been able to gather, white pieces were used in the promo art and the first printings but the design did not cope well with the laser scorching issue at the time, so they were changed to the blue pieces instead.