General Tevor-Browne’s thinking could not sway Bradshaw and the Chatham House crowd or the Colonial Office. Even at this hour they did not have the courage to reverse their drastic mistake but were standing ready to sink with it. The fear of Arab blackmail over the oil fields and the Suez Canal prevailed.
“I have been reading the summaries,” Bradshaw said.
Tevor-Browne lit a cigar. “Yes, very interesting. The Jews certainly aren’t obliging us by marching backwards into the sea.”
Bradshaw tapped his pudgy fingers on the desk top, resenting the general’s “I told you so,” attitude. “I must give a recommendation in a few weeks.”
“I don’t want your needling implications, Sir Clarence. I wanted to speak over the advisability of retaining Haven-Hurst. I think the time has come to get tougher with the Jews.”
“Haven-Hurst is fine for what you want-unless you wish to obtain the services of some SS generals in the war crimes prisons. We still maintain a civil government in Palestine, you know … we do have a high commissioner.”
Bradshaw turned crimson under the insults. He managed to hold his temper, a temper which was growing shorter and more violent each day. “I think the time has come to place greater authority with Haven-Hurst.” He handed a sheet of paper over the desk to Tevor-Browne.
It was a letter addressed to the British commander in Palestine, General Sir Arnold Haven-Hurst, KBE, CB, DSO, MC. “The situation has degenerated to such a state that unless
means can be recommended for immediate stabilization by you I will be compelled to suggest the matter be turned over to the United Nations.”
“Well said, Bradshaw,” Tevor-Browne said. “I am certain Haven-Hurst will have some rather interesting suggestions if you are a devotee of horror stories.”
SAFED, PALESTINE
The retirement order came through for Brigadier Bruce Sutherland quickly and quietly after the Exodus affair. He moved to Palestine and settled down on Mount Canaan near Safed, the ancient city at the entrance to the Huleh Valley in northern Galilee.
At long last Bruce Sutherland seemed to find a bit of peace and some respite from the years of torment since the death of his mother. For the first time he was able to sleep at night without fear. Sutherland purchased a magnificent small villa on Mount Canaan three miles from Safed proper. The air was the purest in Palestine and a constant fresh breeze kept summer’s heat from fully penetrating the area. His home was of white plaster with red tiled roof and granite floor. It was open and breezy and tastefully furnished in Mediterranean de’cor. Beyond bis rear patio there was a terraced hillside of four full dunams of land which he converted into a lush garden crowned with four hundred Galilee rosebushes.
The rear garden afforded a breathtaking view of Safed across the Valley. From here the city appeared to be a perfect cone in shape. At the wide base of Safed’s bill were the beginnings of winding roads which fought up the peak to the acropolis on top, some three thousand feet in the air. Like so many of the hilltops in Palestine, the acropolis of Safed had once been a citadel in the revolutions of the Hebrews against the Greeks and Romans.
He spent his days puttering in his rose garden, considered to be the finest in Palestine, on trips to the holy places, in studying Hebrew and Arabic, or in just wandering through the maze of crooked and aimless alleys that made up Safed. The town was a constant fascination. It was pressed against the hillside with its narrow oriental streets circling up toward the acropolis in no fixed plan, and the houses were jammed together equally haphazardly. These each with its own special design, grillwork, odd-shaped windows, doors, and balconies cluttered the strangled passageways to add up to a strange sort of charm.
The Jewish quarter, a tenth of the city, was inhabited by
the poverty-stricken pious who were content to live off the
meager offerings of coreligionists. Safed was the center of
the Cabala, the Jewish science of mysticism. The ancient ones here spent their lives in study and prayer and were as colorful as the town itself. They ambled along the rows of tiny shops dressed in outlandish oriental costumes and tattered remains of once majestic silks. They were a gentle and peaceful lot, and for this reason the Cabalists of Safed had suffered the most at the hands of the Mufti’s riots for they were least able to defend themselves.
Their history in Palestine was one of the longest unbroken records of Jewish habitation of the Holy Land. The Crusaders banished the Jews, but after their defeat the Cabalists returned to Safed and had remained ever since. The cemetery held graves of the great Cabalist scholars with tombs dating back four and five hundred years. The Cabalists all believed that anyone buried in Safed would go straight to Gan Eden-the Garden of Eden-so pure was the air in Safed.
Sutherland never tired of walking through the tortuous lanes crowded with tiny synagogues and watching the people or filling himself with the folklore and legend of the rabbis and of the Cabala itself.
The Arab section of Safed held the usual broken-down hovels that are found in every Arab city and town in the world. However, the wonderful climate and scenic beauty of Safed attracted many effendi families to build splendid and spacious homes. Mount Canaan had many homes and resorts for the Jews, Arab Safed had the same for wealthy Arabs. Sutherland had friends in both places.
Consistent with the Arab renown for building atop ruins there were, in the Arab quarters of Safed, remains of medieval buildings converted into contemporary housing. The most beautiful example of the architecture was the Mosque of the Daughters of Jacob on the ruins of a Hungarian Crusader convent.
The crown jewel of Safed was the acropolis. The paths that wound up to the hilltop passed the old Knights Templar castle and the ruins of a Hebrew fort. The very peak stood in a pine forest amid a carpet of wild flowers and commanded a view from the Sea of Galilee on the south to the Huleh Lake in the north where one could follow the winding course of the Jordan River. On the horizon was Mount Hermon, and all the valleys and hills of the Galilee were visible beyond Meron on the western side.
On this hill the ancient Hebrews came once each year to light a fire. The signal would be seen and transmitted from hill to hill to indicate the start of the Holy Days. In the days before calendars the Holy Days were determined by calculations of the chief rabbis, and the fires burned on the hilltops from Jerusalem to Tabor to Gilboa to Safed and on to Babylon to where the Jews lived in captivity.
One discordant note jarred the otherwise perfect beauty and visual poetry: a large, ugly concrete Taggart fort stood outside Safed on the road up Mount Canaan and was visible from Sutherland’s villa.
Sutherland ventured north to look at the tel of Hazor and along the Lebanese border to see the burial places of Esther at the fort and Joshua at Abu Yesha. It was by chance that he happened into Gan Dafna and friendship with Dr. Lieberman and Kitty Fremont. For Kitty and Sutherland the renewal of the brief acquaintance made at Cyprus was a welcoming thing. Sutherland was happy to develop into a patron saint of the children. Kitty prevailed upon him to let some of the more disturbed children come with her to visit his villa and Safed. In a short time the two formed a fast friendship.
One afternoon Sutherland returned from Gan Dafna and was surprised to find his former aide, Major Fred Caldwell, awaiting him.
“How long have you been in Palestine, Freddie?”
“I arrived just a bit ago.”
“Where are you serving?”
“Headquarters, Jerusalem, in Intelligence. I’m doing liaison with the Criminal Investigation Division. They’ve had a shake-up recently. Seems that some of our chaps have been working with the Haganah and even with the Maccabees, if you can imagine that.”
Sutherland could imagine it quite easily.
“Actually, sir, this visit is only partly social, although I certainly intended to drop up and see how you’ve been getting on. General Haven-Hurst asked me to see you personally because I had worked under you in the past.”