The entire Yishuv was behind the arms-smuggling movement, but even so they could not bring in heavy weapons or sufficient numbers of first-class small arms. Most of what came in were old rifles and pistols discarded or outmoded in other countries. No arsenal in the world contained the conglomeration of weapons the Haganah had. Every known rifle and pistol was represented in some numbers. A thousand ingenious varieties of mortars, Sten guns, and grenades were manufactured in secret. The Haganah arsenal even included walking canes which could fire a single shot.
Once inside Palestine every desk, chair, table, icebox, bed, and sofa was a potential hiding place for weapons. Every Jewish home had at least one false-bottom drawer, hidden closet, trap door, or trick wall.
Arms were moved about inside the spare tires of buses and in market baskets and under donkey carts. The Haganah played on British “respectability” by having the children run weapons and by using the best hiding place of all-under women’s skirts.
In the building of the Haganah the kibbutz proved not only the answer to redemption but the answer to Jewish arms. Because of the communal character of the kibbutz it was the best place to train young soldiers. A dozen or two dozen could be slipped in easily among three or four hundred members and absorbed by the community. The kibbutz was the best place to hide the larger arms caches and the best place to manufacture small arms. It was also the best place to absorb newly arrived illegal immigrants. From the kibbutzim came the majority of the outstanding Haganah leaders.
The one great strength of the Haganah lay in the fact that its authority was accepted without question by the entire Yishuv. A Haganah command was a positive order. Avidan and the other Haganah leaders were very careful to use their army only in self-defense. When the 1933 general strike broke out Avidan warned that the Haganah would not try to conquer the Palestine Arabs. “Palestine will be conquered with our sweat.” It was an army of restraint.
There were many in the Haganah who felt that it should not be held in such restraint. These were activists who demanded swift retribution.
Akiva was one of these. Officially he was a dairy farmer in the kibbutz of Ein Or but in reality he was a high man in the Haganah in charge of all defense in the Galilee.
The years had aged Akiva far more than his brother Barak. His face looked tired and his beard was nearly gray. He never fully recovered from the death of Ruth and Sharona.
It was a bitterness he carried with him every day of his life.
He was the unofficial leader of the fringe element within the Haganah who demanded more action. As time went on and the trouble heightened, Akiva’s group became very militant. Outside Palestine, splinter groups formed from the main. Zionist body to support them.
When the British threw the blockade along the coast of Palestine, Akiva could stand it no longer. He called a rump session of his supporters within the Haganah. They were all angry men like himself and they reached a decision that rocked the Yishuv to its core.
In the spring of 1934 Barak received an urgent call from Avidan to come to Jerusalem.
“A terrible thing has happened, Barak,” Avidan said. “Your brother, Akiva, has withdrawn from the Haganah and taken dozens of our top men with him. Hundreds of rank-and-file people are beginning to follow.”
When the initial shock had passed, Barak sighed. “He has threatened to do that for years. I have been amazed at the restraint he has shown till now. Akiva has been smoldering for decades, ever since our father was killed. He has never recovered from his wife’s death.”
“You know,” Avidan said, “that half my work in the Haganah is to hold our boys back. If we let them, they’d make war on the British tomorrow. Your feelings, my feelings, and Akiva’s feelings are the same, but he can destroy us all. One reason we have been able to achieve what we have in Palestine is that despite our differences we have acted in unison in our outside dealings. The British and the, Arabs have always had to negotiate as though with a single person. Now Akiva has a hot-tempered gang of activists. If they start terror tactics the entire Yishuv will have to answer for his actions.”
Barak traveled back north to Ein Or, which was not far from his own moshav of Yad El. Ein Or, like most of the older kibbutzim, had been turned into a veritable garden. As senior member and one of the founders Akiva had a separate little two-room cottage of his own which was filled with books. He even had his own radio and toilet-a rarity in kibbutz life. Akiva loved Ein Or as he had loved Shoshanna before it. Barak had wanted him to live with them at Yad El after the death of Ruth and his daughter but Akiva loved kibbutz life and remained, unhealthily, with their ghosts.
Barak talked softly to his brother. Akiva had heard all the arguments before. He was nervous and restless at the prospect of a showdown with his brother.
“So, the gentlemen of Yishuv Central have sent you around
to cry for them. They are becoming experts at appeasement.”
“I would have come without their invitation when I heard what an insane thing you have done,” Barak said.
Akiva paced the room again. Barak studied him. He was alive with the same angry fire he had had as a boy. “All I am doing is something the Yishuv Central recognizes and is afraid to do. Sooner or later even they are going to have to face the facts of life. The British are our enemy.”
“We do not believe that, Akiva. All told we have done very well under British rule.”
“Then you are a fool.”
“I have been wrong before. The British represent the constituted government of Palestine.”
“While they cut our throats,” Akiva mocked. “The gentlemen of the Yishuv Central carry their brief cases to conferences and read their little notes and findings and bow and scrape while the Mufti and his cutthroats run wild. Do you see the Arabs negotiating?”
“We will achieve our aims legally.”
“We will achieve our aims by fighting for them!”
“Then if we must fight, let us fight as a unified people. You put yourself in the category of the Mufti by starting a band of outlaws. Have you ever thought of the consequences if the British leave Palestine? No matter how bitter your feelings … and mine … the British are still our greatest instrument for achieving statehood.”
Akiva waved his hand in disgust. “We will achieve statehood the same way we redeemed this land … with our sweat and blood. I refuse to sit around and wait for British handouts.”
“For the last time, Akiva … don’t do this thing. You will only give our enemies an opportunity to point their fingers at us and increase their lies.”
“Aha!” Akiva cried. “Now we have come to the guts of the matter! Jews must play the games by the rules. Jews cannot be wrong! Jews must beg and appeal! Jews must turn their cheeks!”
“Stop it!”
“God no!” Akiva cried. “Whatever you do, don’t fight! You wouldn’t want the Germans and the Arabs and the British to think you are bad boys.”
“I said stop it.”
“Ghetto Jew Barak. That is what you are and that is what the Yishuv Central is. Well, let me tell you something else, dear brother. Here is one Jew who may be wrong but intends to live. So let us be wrong in the eyes of the whole damned world.”
Barak trembled with rage. He sat motionless to try to hide
his anger. Akiva ranted on. Was Akiva really wrong? How much pain and degradation and betrayal and suffering must a man take before fighting back?
Barak got out of his chair and walked to the door.
“Tell Avidan and the gentlemen of the Yishuv Central and all the little negotiators that Akiva and the Maccabees have a message for the British and the Arabs … ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth!’ ”
“You are never to set foot in my house again,” Barak said.
The two brothers glared at each other for many moments. Tears welled in Akiva’s eyes. “Not set foot in your house?”