Leon Uris (81 page)

“That was a long time ago.”

“Maybe I’ve got a long memory. We used to talk about it during the riots, how ridiculous it was for everyone else to fight. We took blood vows to be eternal brothers. Taha ... I was up all of last night thinking of what I was going to say today. I began remembering all the things that you and I have done together.”

“Sentimentality does not become you, Ari.”

“Neither does having to threaten you. Mohammed Kassi and the men in Fort Esther are the same kind of men who murdered your father while he was kneeling at prayer. The minute the British leave the area he is going to come down from Fort Esther and get you to block the road to Gan Dafna. If you let him, he’ll shove rifles in the hands of your people and order you to attack Yad El.”

“And just what do you expect of me?”

“And what do you expect of me?” Ari countered.

A stony silence ensued.

“You are the muktar of Abu Yesha. You can rally your people just as your father did. You’ve got to stop doing business with the irregulars.”

“Or what?”

“Or you will be treated as an enemy.”

“
Or what?
Ari?”

“You are going to bring on the destruction of Abu Yesha.”

Neither Ari nor Taha quite believed Ari’s words. Ari was tired; he walked up to the Arab and put his hand on Taha’s shoulder.

“Please,” Ari said, “help me.”

“I am an Arab,” Taha said.

“You are a human being. You know right from wrong.”

“I am a
dirty Arab!
”

“It is you who thinks that of himself.”

“Are you going to tell me I am your brother?”

“You always have been,” Ari said.

“If I am your brother, then give me Jordana. Yes, that is right ... give her to me and let me take her to my bed. Let her bear my children.”

Ari’s fist shot out and crashed against Taha’s jaw. The Arab was sent sprawling to his hands and knees. He sprang up and instinctively unsheathed the dagger from his waist sash and came at Ari.

Ari stood rigidly, making no move to defend himself. Taha raised the knife, then froze and turned and threw it from him. It clattered over the stone floor.

“What have I done?” Ari whispered. He walked toward Taha with an expression that begged forgiveness.

“You have told me everything that I need to know. Get out of my house, Jew.”

A
TERRIBLE TURN
had taken place at Flushing Meadow. Anticipating the necessity of armed intervention to back up partition, and fearing the Russian position as part of an international force, the United States announced its intention to abandon its stand for partition.

The Yishuv launched a desperate campaign to change the American defeatist attitude. In the middle of these important maneuvers, Barak Ben Canaan received an urgent cable to report at once to France. Because of the urgency of the work at Flushing Meadow, Barak was puzzled by the order, but he left immediately by plane.

He was met by two Yishuv agents. Barak had been called to take part in highly secret negotiations of a vital arms deal. The Yishuv calculated that with the turn of events at Flushing Meadow, arms were the most urgent immediate need, and Barak one of the most able men for such business. It was their friend, Jan Masaryk of Czechoslovakia, who provided the information on sources of weapons in a half dozen European countries.

After several weeks of confidential and ticklish parleying the deals were closed. The problem now became getting the arms into Palestine, still under British blockade.

The first step was to acquire an airplane large enough to haul the arms. In Vienna an Aliyah Bet agent found an obsolete, surplus American Liberator bomber, which was purchased under the name of Alpine Charter Flights, Inc.

Next they had to find a crew; six men, four South African Jews and two American Jews who had flown during the war, were picked and sworn to secrecy.

Finally, the most difficult task was to create a secret airfield in tiny Palestine undetected by the British. An abandoned British fighterplane base in the Jezreel Valley was selected. It lay in an all-Jewish area and offered the maximum chance of the Liberator’s being able to get in and out again.

Meanwhile the assembly of the arms inside Europe was carried out with the same secrecy that hid the true identity of the Alpine Charter Flights, Inc.

It was a race against time. Two weeks would be needed before the first load of arms could leave Europe. The question was whether or not it would be too late.

So far, miraculously, not a single settlement had fallen, but the Jewish convoys were being ripped to pieces. Water lines to the Negev Desert settlements had been cut. In some places the settlers were subsisting on potato peelings and olives.

The focal point of the struggle was Jerusalem, where the isolation-and-starvation tactics were beginning to pay off. The Bab el Wad from Tel Aviv was littered with the wreckage of burned-out trucks. Only occasional huge convoys, mounted at crippling cost of men and matériel, staved off disaster in Jerusalem.

For the first time in the history of Jerusalem, the city was violated by artillery fire, from Kawukji’s irregulars.

Kawukji, Safwat, and Kadar urgently needed a victory. The Palestine Arabs were becoming uneasy over the failure of Arab predictions of “great victories.”

It was Kawukji, the self-styled generalissimo of the Mufti’s “Forces of the Yarmuk,” who decided to grab off the honor of capturing the first Jewish settlement. He picked his target carefully, having no wish to try a nut too tough to crack the first time out.

Kawukji picked what he believed to be a soft spot: Tirat Tsvi—the Castle of the Rabbi Tsvi—was elected for the distinction of being the first Jewish settlement to fall. The
kibbutz
of Tirat Tsvi was made up of Orthodox Jews, many of whom were concentration camp “graduates.” The
kibbutz
stood in the southern section of the Beth Shean Valley, located there purposely to neutralize an otherwise completely Arab area. South of the
kibbutz
was the “Triangle,” the all-Arab area of Palestine. Within shooting distance stood the borders of Jordan. Slightly north, the hostile Arab city of Beth Shean completed the cut-off of the
kibbutz.

Tirat Tsvi was one of the Jewish outposts that guarded the Jordan Valley farther to the north.

Kawukji was delighted with his choice of Tirat Tsvi. The religious Jews of the
kibbutz
would crumple before the first massed attack. The brigand assembled hundreds of Arabs at the Nablus base in the Triangle and marched up for the attack.

Kawukji announced his victory in advance; it was published even before he made an attack. When he did move his troops into position, the Arab women from Beth Shean came to the edge of the battlefield and waited with sacks and containers to rush up after the troops and plunder the
kibbutz
.

The attack came with a cloudy dawn. The Jews had one hundred and sixty-seven men and women of fighting age on the battle line, in trenches, and behind rough barricades facing the Arab position. The children were hidden in the centermost building of the
kibbutz
. The defenders had no armament heavier than a single two-inch mortar.

A bugle blew. Arab Legion officers with drawn swords led the charge. The irregulars behind them poured over the open fields in a massed frontal assault calculated to overrun the
kibbutz
by sheer weight of numbers.

The Jews waited until the Arab force was within twenty yards, then on signal they cut loose with a tremendous volley. Arabs went down like mown wheat.

The impetus of the Arab charge carried forward a second, third, and fourth headlong wave. The Jews continued their disciplined fire, blasting each rush as the leaders’ feet touched
kibbutz
ground.

The field was littered with Arab dead and the wounded screamed, “We are brothers! Mercy, in the name of Allah!”

The rest scrambled back out of range and began a confused retreat. Kawukji had promised them easy victory and plunder! He had told them this bunch of Orthodox Jews would flee at the sight of them! They had not reckoned on such a fight. The Arab women on the outskirts of the battle began to flee too.

The Arab Legion officers herded the running irregulars together and stopped the retreat only by firing at them. The leaders reorganized their men for another rush at the
kibbutz
, but the irregulars’ hearts were no longer in their effort.

Inside Tirat Tsvi the Jews were in bad trouble. They did not have enough ammunition left to hold off another charge if Arabs came in strong and hard. Moreover, if the Arabs changed strategy and tried a slow attack with flanking movement the Jews could not contain it. They hastily organized a desperation tactic. Most of the ammunition was given to twenty sharpshooters. The rest dropped back to the children’s house and prepared for a last-ditch fight with bayonets, clubs, and bare hands. Through field glasses they watched the Arabs mass and saw that there were enough troops left to overrun the
kibbutz
.

The Arabs came over the field more slowly this time, with some of the Legion officers behind the troops forcing them on at gun point.

Suddenly the heavens opened up in an unexpected downpour. Within minutes the open field was turned into a deep and bogging mud. The Arab charge, instead of gaining momentum, began to wallow, just as the Canaanite chariots had done against Deborah.

As the first Legion officers reached the
kibbutz
, the sharpshooters picked them off. Kawukji’s noble “Forces of the Yarmuk” had had enough for the day.

Kawukji was in a rage over the Tirat Tsvi debacle. He had to have a victory quickly to save face. This time he decided to go after big game.

The road between Tel Aviv and Haifa was more important to the Yishuv from a purely strategic standpoint than the road to Jerusalem. If the Tel Aviv-Haifa line could be cut, the Arabs could sever the Jewish dispositions, splitting the Galilee away from the Sharon. There were Arab villages on the main highway which forced the Jews to use alternate interior roads to maintain transportation between the two cities. On one of the vital alternate roads was
kibbutz
Mishmar Haemek—the Guardpost of the Valley. Mishmar Haemek became Kawukji’s goal in the ambitious move to separate Tel Aviv from Haifa.

This time Kawukji determined not to repeat the mistakes of Tirat Tsvi. He massed more than a thousand men and moved them into the hills surrounding the
kibbutz,
together with ten 75mm. mountain guns.

With Mishmar Haemek ringed, Kawukji opened a brutal artillery barrage. The Jews had one machine gun with which to answer back.

After a day of the pounding, the British called a truce, entered the
kibbutz
, and advised the Jews to pull out. When they refused the British left, washing their hands of the affair. Kawukji learned from the British that the Jews were relatively weak inside the
kibbutz
. What he did not know, because of his lack of an intelligence system, was that the Emek Valley was alive with men in training for the Haganah. During the second night two entire battalions of Haganah, all armed with rifles, slipped into the
kibbutz
.

On the third day, Kawukji mounted the attack.

Instead of walking into a frightened and cowering
kibbutz
, he ran into two battalions of eagerly waiting and trained men. Kawukji’s offense was smashed.

He rallied his men and tried a slow sustained move. It was equally unsuccessful. He mounted more attacks, but with each the irregulars showed less inclination to fight. They straggled forward halfheartedly and pulled back whenever resistance stiffened.

Toward the end of the day, Kawukji lost control of his troops. They began to walk out of the battle area.

Inside the
kibbutz
, the Jews witnessed the development and poured out after the Arabs. Here was a completely unexpected turn. The Arabs were so startled at the sight of Jews charging that they all fled, with the Haganah literally at their heels. The running fight surged back miles, to Megiddo, site of a hundred battles through the ages. Here, on the historic fighting ground of Armageddon, the Jews completely broke Kawukji’s forces. The carnage stopped only when the British stepped in and forced a truce.

The Jews had won their first real victory of the War of Liberation.

In the Jerusalem corridor the Hillmen Brigade of the Palmach performed titans’ work to keep the road open. This gang of teen-agers, with commanders in their twenties, patrolled the deep gorges and wilds of Judea, making fierce hit-and-run raids on Arab villages in conjunction with convoy runs. They frequently worked around the clock until they were numb with exhaustion, yet they could always be goaded on to one more patrol, one more raid, one more hike through the fierce country.

“In this wadi King David also lived as a guerrilla fighter!” The bloodshot eyes of the Palmach youngsters recorded fatigue as they roused to still another effort.

“Remember, you are fighting at the place where Samson was born!”

“In this valley David met Goliath!”

“Here Joshua made the sun stand still!”

At night the Bible was read to the exhausted warriors as a source of inspiration for the superhuman efforts the next day would call forth. Here, in Kadar’s territory, the fighting was hard and constant and the Arabs had confidence behind a strong leader.

An enormous convoy mustered in Tel Aviv for another all-out effort to save Jerusalem. The Hillmen Brigade’s job was to take the Arab village of Kastel, built on a Crusader fort dominating one of the main heights of the highway.

The storming of Kastel became the first Jewish offensive action in the War of Liberation. The brigade made a sheer-guts attack, crawling up the treacherous incline under cover of friendly darkness. They reached the peak of the Kastel bloodied and weary but threw themselves into hand-to-hand combat and threw the Arabs out.

Kastel lifted the flagging spirits of the Yishuv. Following the victory, the huge convoy from Tel Aviv battled every inch of the way through the Bab el Wad, slogged on through to New Jerusalem, and again brought vital relief to the beleaguered Jews.