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Joseph
quickly locked the door before turning his attention
to Ari. He wasn't sure who "they" were, but
he knew that the "old man" as he was
affectionately called was David Ben-Gurion, the leader
of the Jews in Palestine, and the man who would surely
become the first Premier of their new country.
Joseph
stared at Ari and almost laughed aloud, thinking that
with his nervous eyes, grimy face, ill-fitting
clothes, and thick red hair standing straight and
stiff from dirt, Ari looked like a demon himself.
Still, Ari's unexpected visit clearly meant bad news.
Joseph tried to keep the alarm out of his voice,
"Ari, what has happened?"
Ari
curled his hands into fists and looked as if he wanted
to strike out. Ari's face, already red from the cold,
grew redder still. "There's been a massive
bombing at the bus station at Jaffa Gate. Just a short
while ago. Only God knows how many are dead and
injured." After a moment's hesitation Ari added,
"I was told the street looked like a
slaughterhouse."
The
Jaffa Gate area was the main commercial artery of
Jerusalem and was usually crowded with shoppers.
Joseph
answered softly, "God...how easy it is to be
alive one moment and dead the next." Since
leaving Europe and coming to Palestine, Joseph had
often thought the old hatreds that had percolated on
the land promised the Jews by God now threatened every
living soul, Arab and Jew.
Ari
leaned his M-1 rifle against the wall. "Our
sources tell us the Irgun gang was responsible. They
managed to steal a police van. Then, those bastards
rolled two barrels of TNT onto a crowded Arab street.
Women...children...all turned into shredded
meat."
Joseph
spoke in a low voice and did not look into Ari's eyes.
"Dear God." He then asked, "Did they
capture the men?"
Ari
nodded, "After throwing a second bomb at the
intersection of Mamillah Road and Princess Mary
Avenue, members of the gang crashed the van and tried
to escape on foot through the cemetery. The British
police and an American Consulate Guard followed the
men, killing three of the gang."
The
Irgun gang was an illegal military group, led by
Menachem Begin, a man whose unassuming appearance gave
no indication of his murderous anger. His followers
consisted of hardened Holocaust survivors willing to
kill anyone trying to block the creation of a Jewish
homeland. These men believed their miraculous return
to the Promised Land was a sign of God's devotion to
their cause, and they justified every terrorist action
with a biblical verse. The Irgun gang violently
disagreed with the idea of compromise with the
British, Americans or the Arabs, and their reckless
acts had caused David Ben-Gurion many sleepless
nights.
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