Ari watched Hawks beat his fists on the table and mumble under his breath. He had turned Gan Dafna into a suicide position. There was no use of berating him further. The man was obviously sick over what he had been forced to do.
On his way over, Ari’s brain had been busy on a scheme, risky at best, but a long gamble that might save the key position of Gan Dafna.
He leaned over Hawks’s desk. “I’m going to give you a chance to undo part of the damage.”
“What can I do now, Ben Canaan?”
“As area commander it is completely within your rights to come up to Gan Dafna and advise us to evacuate.”
“Yes, but…”
“Then do it. Go up to Gan Dafna tomorrow and take fifty trucks up with you. Put armor in front and behind you. If anyone asks you what you are doing, tell them you intend to evacuate the children.”
“I don’t understand. Are you going to evacuate?”
“No. But you leave the rest to me. You just come up with the convoy.”
Hawks did not press to know what Ari had in mind. He followed the instructions and took a fifty-lorry convoy to Gan Dafna, escorted by half tracks and armored cars. The half-mile-long procession moved from the Taggart fort through six Arab villages on the way to the Huleh. It drove up the mountain road, through Abu Yesha, in plain sight of the irregulars in Fort Esther. The convoy arrived around noon 482
at Gan Dafna. Major Hawks went through the motions of advising Dr. Lieberman to quit the place; the latter, on Ari’s advice, officially refused. After lunch, the convoy left Gan Dafna and returned to its base in Safed.
In the meanwhile Ari “confided” to some of his Arab friends at Abu Yesha that Major Hawks had left tons of arms -from machine guns to mortars-at the village.
“After all,” Ari said in greatest confidence, “Hawks has been a known friend of the Jews and he was privately doing something to compensate for the Arab occupation of Fort Esther.”
The story was planted. Within hours the rumor had spread throughout the area that Gan Dafna was impregnable. The children were armed to the teeth. This story was lent weight by the fact that there was no evacuation of the children: the Arabs knew the Jews would get the children out if there were great danger.
Ari made a visit to Abu Yesha, once the “might” of Gan Dafna had been established and proved a checkmate.
He went to see his old friend Taha the muktar in the stone house by the stream. No matter how strained feelings were, a man must be made welcome in the house of an Arab. It was an age-old custom, but despite Taha’s going through the motions of hospitality Ari felt a coldness he had never known before from Taha.
The two men shared a meal and spoke small talk. When Ari felt that enough ceremony had been served he turned to the purpose of his visit.
“The time has come,” Ari said, “that I must know your feelings.”
“My feelings these days are of little concern.”
“I am afraid that I must talk now as the Haganah commander of the area, Taha.”
“I gave you my word that Abu Yesha would remain neutral.”
Ari stood up from the table and looked Taha directly in the eye and spoke words harsh to an Arab ear.
“You have given your word but you have broken it,” he said.
Taha looked at him with a flash of anger.
“We happen to know that Kawukji’s men have been passing through Abu Yesha in droves.”
“And what do you expect of me?” Taha snapped. “Shall I ask them to please stop coming? I didn’t invite them.”
“Neither did I. Look, my friend … there was once a time when you and I didn’t speak to each other this way.”
“Times change, Ari.”
Ari walked to the window and looked out at the mosque
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by the opposite side of the stream. “I have always loved this spot. We knew many happy days in this room and by that stream. Do you remember the nights that you and I camped out there?”
“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 bis 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 ArabV
“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 484
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.”
CHAPTER FOUR: 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 fighter-plane 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.