Jan stopped the replay and turned to Ben-Haim. “I think the man’s mad. What were those last things he was talking about?”
“Not mad — but criminally sane. He tempts us with salvation knowing that it could mean destruction. And in order to help us decide, he quotes from our own history. His thinking is as convoluted as that of a Talmudic scholar.”
“The Warsaw rising was during the Second World War,” Dvora said. “Jews were being slaughtered there by the Nazis, were dying of starvation and disease as well. They rose up and fought their attackers, bare hands against guns, until they were all killed. They knew they would die — but they would not submit.”
“And equally important,” Ben-Haim added. “They fought to break out of the ghetto. And still, today, the Jews are forced to live in a ghetto. It may be an entire country but comfortable as it is — it is still a ghetto. Thurgood-Smythe knows that we want to leave.”
“And Entebbe,” Jan asked. “What was that?”
“A commando raid half way around the world that should not have stood a chance of succeeding. But it did. Thurgood-Smythe puts Satan to shame with his temptations!”
“I don’t quite understand these temptations,” Jan said. “You’re not threatened or at war with anyone. You can just sit this one out and see what happens.”
“Basically, this is quite true. But in a very real sense our freedom is but an illusion of freedom. We are free to stay in our nationwide jail. There is also an ironical sense of justice and injustice that appeals to us. We in our little free prison are surrounded by a world of economically and physically enslaved men. Shouldn’t we help them? We who were in bondage for millennia know well what it is. Should we not aid others to achieve what we always prayed for for ourselves? I said, this is a riddle for Talmudic scholars. I’m old so perhaps I doubt too much. I like my security. But hear the voice of young Israel. Dvora — what do you think?”
“I don’t think — I know!” she said fiercely. “Fight! There is no other course possible.”
“My response is equally simple,” Jan said. “If there is any chance at all of this thing succeeding I must go along with it. Thurgood-Smythe says that he will put me in contact with the attacking fleet. Very good, for not only will I tell them about his plan, but I can tell them also about our reservations and what kind of twister Thurgood-Smythe really is. Then the responsibility for a final decision will not rest with me. So my response is clear-cut. I do what he says.”
“Yes, in your position I would do the same,” BenHaim said. “You have nothing to lose — but the world to gain. Yet it all sounds too good. I have the feeling that the man must be playing a devious game.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Dvora said. “His personal fate should not concern us. If this is all a trap then the attackers must be warned and turn the knowledge to their advantage. If it is not a trap Israel must fight in this final battle, this war to end all wars.”
Ben-Haim sighed deeply and rocked back and forth in his chair. “How many times have those words been spoken? The war to end all wars. Have they ever been true?”
“No. But they could be now,” Dvora insisted. “Turn it on again, Jan. Let’s hear the end of it.”
It made a lot of sense — or nonsense. Jan felt himself as entrapped as the Israelis. Basically the one thing he wanted to do with Thurgood-Smythe was kill him. Instead he found himself working for him. He shook his head in wonderment and reached out and touched the button.
time to leave the ghetto again. So think carefully about what I have said. Weigh your decisions. Take the Knesset into your confidence and ask them for a decision. There are no separate parts to this proposal. You must accept it or reject it. It is all or nothing. This is the only argument from me that you will hear. There is time, but not very much, to reach your decision. The attacking fleet will be here in approximately ten days. Your attack will take place just before dawn on the date that you will be given. You have four days to decide. On next Friday night your radio station will be broadcasting the usual weekly memorial service to honor those who have passed on. If you wish to take part simply list Jan Kulozik’s name among the noble dead. He is not a superstitious man so I am sure he will not mind. However, if you decide not to participate in the salvation of mankind simply do nothing — since you will be doing nothing. You will not hear from me again.”
“Such guilt he gives us,” Ben-Haim said as the screen went dark. “Are you sure he was never trained in theology?”
“I am sure of nothing about my brother-in-law. Though I am sure now that all of his earlier background is his own invention. Perhaps he is the father of lies, just as you said. What will you do next?”
“Just as he commanded. Take the proposal to the Knesset our parliament. Let a little of the responsibility and guilt slip off onto their shoulders.”
Dvora and Jan left the room when Ben-Haim turned to the telephone. They had not noticed, because of the automatic lighting, that darkness had fallen while they had been listening to Thurgood-Smythe. They went out onto the balcony, not speaking, each of them wrapped in private thought. Jan leaned against a pillar and looked out at the ascending lights of the town, where it climbed up the side of the darkened valley across from him. It was a moonless night and the stars burned clear and sharp, filling the sky as far down as the black cutout of the horizon A world at peace, comfortable and secure. And Thurgood-Smythe wanted them to give it all up, to go to war for an ideal. Jan did not envy them their decision; his had been easy enough to make. Turning around he saw that Dvora was sitting on the couch, quietly, her hands folded in her lap.
“You must be hungry,” she said. “Let me fix you something.”
“In a moment. What do you think the Knesset will do?”
“Talk. They are very good at that. Just a bunch of old men who prefer talk to action. Thurgood-Smythe should have given them four months to make their minds up instead of four days.”
“Then you don’t think they will decide?”
“They’ll decide all right. Against the idea. Play it safe, they always want to play it safe.”
“Perhaps that’s how they got to be old men.”
“Are you laughing at me? Let me see your face.”
Dvora pulled him down next to her on the couch and saw that, indeed, he was smiling. She could not help smiling back.
“All right, so I am getting angry over nothing. It hasn’t happened yet. But it will, just as I said it would. Then I’ll get angry. But if that happens what will you do? In case they say no.”
“I haven’t begun to even think about that possibility. Go back and get in touch with Thurgood-Smythe again, I imagine. I just can’t stay safely here when the fate of everyone in the world — all of the world — is being decided. Perhaps I can still contact the attacking fleet, tell them what I know. There’s no point in trying to decide before I have to.”
While he was talking Jan realized that they still had their hands clasped together; neither would pull away from the bond. What am I thinking of, Jan worried, then became aware that he wasn’t thinking at all. But feeling, reacting physically. And he knew, without asking, that Dvora felt the same way. He wanted to question the sensation but did not, was afraid to. When he turned toward her she was already facing him. Then, without conscious effort, she was in his arms.
An unmeasurable space of time passed before she drew her mouth away from his, but still held him tightly in her arms. Her words were only a whisper.
“Co me to my room. This place is far too public.”
He stood up when she did but tried hard to express the tiny niggle of doubt that tapped at him.