Avraham Azrieli - The Jerusalem inception

Mint, Lemmy decided, that’s what her breath smelled like. He knew he should get up and leave, but he couldn’t. The fire from her hand had spread to his loins. “My father is a great scholar of Talmud. Our people listen to him.”

“Because they think he’s a tzadik? ”

“Yes. He is a righteous man.”

“Oh, Jerusalem.” Tanya’s hand slipped off his shoulder. “It must be nice to be so innocent.”

He stood up and glanced at the bookshelf.

“Would you like another novel?” Tanya picked one. “That’s a good one.”

Lemmy couldn’t contain his smile. It was Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

E lie Weiss watched from his Deux Chevaux as Abraham’s son left Tanya’s house and walked down the street, his black coat unbuttoned, his black hat tilted jauntily. When the boy was out of sight, Elie got out of his car and knocked on Tanya’s door.

She stood in the doorway. “What do you want?”

“A bit of your time. May I come in?”

She moved aside.

He entered a large, tidy room. The closed door to his left probably led to the equipment room where she listened in on UN radio traffic. He sat on the sofa.

Tanya remained standing. “I need to go back to my work.”

He pulled out a pack of Lucky Strike.

“Don’t smoke here.”

“No problem.” Elie slid the pack back into his pocket. “How was your reunion with Abraham? Lots of hugs and kisses?”

“You told him I was dead!”

“I told him the facts. He drew the conclusion.”

“You tricked him, just like you had tricked me about his death. Bloody sieve! ”

“It’s a miracle he recovered, and it was a miracle the wolves didn’t eat you.”

Tanya’s pretty face was red with anger, making her even more attractive. “We needed one more miracle, but you’re still around!”

“I saw your new friend leave. Good-looking boy, Abraham’s son. Snip off those payos and strip the black clothes, and he’s a carbon copy of the Gerster you once loved.”

Tanya’s face grew even redder. “You’re a sick man!”

He was pleased with her reaction, which confirmed his strategy. “I need to know what he told you. Anything about Neturay Karta?”

“You haven’t changed.”

“He must have told you something.” Elie wanted her to think this was just about snooping for information on the fundamentalist sect, let her believe he had given up on the fortune her Nazi lover had stashed in Switzerland.

Tanya walked to the opposite end of the room. “You already have Abraham in position. He’s your agent. Leave his son alone.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s an innocent victim.”

“You read too many novels.”

“He’s just a boy.”

“He’s the same age Abraham was in forty-five. You remember the boy he was, yes? The heads he blew? The necks he squeezed? The hearts he stabbed, or broke?”

Tanya turned away. She released her hair and held it to her cheek like a child seeking comfort in a familiar rag. “You couldn’t make me betray Klaus twenty years ago. You think I’ll betray Abraham now?”

“Your loyalty to ex-lovers is commendable.”

“A snake,” she said, “is what you are.”

“A very powerful snake.” Elie looked around. He knew she would not leave the Nazi’s ledger in plain sight, but he hoped to see something useful, a hint of where she had hidden the key to the dormant fortune. “You’re taking it too personally. This is not about me or you or Abraham. This is about the future of Israel. We won’t survive the Arabs’ attacks while a Talmudic Trojan horse spews religious violence in our midst.”

“A few hundred fragile scholars are a threat to the state?”

“Neturay Karta’s fundamentalist ideology is like a spark that could start a brushfire, which will spread to every religious community in Israel.”

“You’re being paranoid.”

Elie put a cigarette between his lips. “Orthodox Jews believe that one day the Messiah will ride into Jerusalem on his white donkey and twiddle a magic wand to recreate King David’s empire and bring us back to the Promised Land. Therefore, they perceive modern Zionism as a blasphemous usurpation of God. Remember the zealots who killed the great priest and caused Roman victory over Jerusalem two thousand years ago? Neturay Karta is the reincarnation of those ancient fanatics, the modern-day progenitors of a violent rebellion against the secular Israeli democratic government-”

“You’re wasting time. I work for Mossad, not for you.”

“Actually, soon you’ll also be working for my Special Operations Department.” He could see her face tense up. “I won’t interfere with your regular duties, but you’ll have to follow my orders and provide me with all information and items that you possess.”

Tanya shook her head sharply, her hair flying about her, making her look like a young girl. “General Amit won’t force me.”

Elie thought for a moment. “Are you sleeping with the chief of Mossad?”

“You’re repulsive!” She picked up a book and threw it on the desk in frustration. “Yes, Elie Weiss. I sleep with General Amit, I sleep with Abraham and his son, I sleep with dogs and pigs, and I sleep with everybody except you. Now leave my house!”

He got up and paced to the framed photo on the wall. “Your daughter’s lovely.”

“Leave!”

“Bira Galinski. Private First Class, mandatory service, IDF Media Department, Central Command.” He looked at the photo closely. “Not as pretty as her mother. Light hair, blue eyes, big bones. Must be her father’s looks. I hear she wants to be a historian, a scholar, not a spy. Odd, if you consider her parents’ career choices.”

He turned to Tanya, whose face went pale. She said nothing.

“Now, let’s see. She was born in Berlin on July eleventh, nineteen forty five. A healthy baby-three kilos two hundred grams. Her birth certificate refers to the father as deceased. But he must have been alive and well back in,” Elie counted on his fingers, “say, late winter, nineteen forty four, which was when you and Herr Obergruppenfuhrer Klaus von Koenig-”

“Go to hell.” She threw open the door.

“To hell?” Elie crossed the room slowly and stood close enough to smell her. “I’ve been there, Tanya, long nights, listening to Abraham Gerster making love to you, not even bothering to be quiet, as if I were blind and deaf and without my own desires.” He paused, regretting his momentary sincerity. “Treat me with respect, or I’ll expose your daughter’s Nazi paternal lineage. Can you imagine the consequences?”

The following Sabbath, Lemmy found a week’s worth of newspapers on Tanya’s coffee table. A headline read: General Bull’s Demand for Reinforcements Rejected by UN Secretary General U-Thant. Another headline: Eshkol Blames Egypt and Syria for the Growing Tension at the Borders. The paper quoted opposition Knesset member Shimon Peres: Levi Eshkol and Abba Eban Sacrifice Israel’s Security for the Interests of America and the Soviet Union!

Reading through the headlines, Lemmy realized how distorted his perception of Israeli society had been. Within the insular Neturay Karta, everyone believed the godless Israelis to be uniformly immoral, rejoicing in promiscuity and porcine gluttony. But Tanya’s newspapers reflected the dedication of the Zionist leaders to the survival of the young state. Their ideological bickering appeared sincere and passionate, not the cynical materialism that he had expected.

Before he left, Tanya gave him a thin book by Emile Zola: I Accuse.

Back home, his parents were taking a Sabbath-afternoon nap. He shut himself up in his room and began reading. Written in 1898, it was the story of a Jew named Dreyfus, whose career as a French army officer had ended in a disgraceful conviction for treason. The book argued that Dreyfus had in fact been framed as a scapegoat by the French establishment to cover for one of their own.