Avraham Azrieli - The Jerusalem inception

“Everyone is entitled to one vice.” Rabin lit a third cigarette with the stub of his second. “Or two.”

“A thief as defense minister?”

“You’re looking for an honest politician?” Rabin sneered. “Good luck!”

“There’s a difference between dishonesty and criminality.”

The chief of staff watched the smoke drift away from his mouth. “Most of my career I’ve served under Dayan. He’s arrogant. Dishonest. A braggart. But he has steel balls. As defense minister, he’ll give the green light and save Israel. That’s all I care about right now.”

Across the gulch, on the Jordanian side, they could see the white ant that was General Bull’s Jeep. It approached Government House from the east. Elie glanced at his watch. Eleven minutes since leaving the IDF command in West Jerusalem. “Eshkol promised me the top Mossad post.”

Rabin smiled. “Why would you want such a headache?”

“To save our people from another Holocaust.”

“Get over it, Weiss. The Nazis lost the war. They failed to exterminate us. Look around. We’re still here.”

“You’re a naive sabra,” Elie said. “No offense.”

“None taken.”

“You haven’t seen your family butchered like sheep on market day, haven’t smelled the crematoria, still glowing red with our people’s ashes.”

“I’ve lost comrades in battle,” Rabin said. “I’ve fought for Israel since my Bar Mitzvah.”

“Playing defense. That’s why you boys call your army the Israeli Defense Force. It’s delusional to think that the Holocaust ended with the Third Reich. The Final Solution didn’t start with Hitler, it didn’t end when the Americans reached Auschwitz, and it will continue until we finish it off!”

“You’re paranoid.”

“The way I see it, our people have been the subject of a Final Solution campaign for thousands of years, since the day idol worshippers chased the patriarch Abraham from his home, through the Egyptian slavery, Amalekite attacks, Canaanite raids, the Babylonian exile, the Greek massacres, the Romans burning down the temple, crushing Masada-”

“I don’t need a history lesson.” Pointing with his cigarette at the border, Rabin said, “I’m worried about the here and now.”

Elie looked over his shoulder at the staff car awaiting Rabin, his driver and aide standing by, watching. “The here and now include the Final Solution. Think of the crusaders, who killed more Jews in Europe than the Muslims they had set out to vanquish. And the Inquisition, another phase in the Final Solution. The expulsions from Spain, Portugal, and England. The pogroms in Poland, Latvia, the Ukraine, and Russia. Stalin’s mass murder of Jews.” He paused to take a draw, blowing the smoke into the wind. “Hitler’s camps were just another phase in the effort to exterminate the Jews. And now? Are you listening to Nasser’s speeches? He’s the leader of the Arab world, and what did he declare in Cairo’s giant square last week? Annihilate Israel! Throw the Jews into the sea! Isn’t it the familiar language of the Final Solution?”

“What do you want?” Rabin’s voice rose in anger. “We’re ready to move! We’re ready to fight! We’re ready to win!”

“This time, maybe. But what about next time? And the next?” Elie’s cigarette burned his fingers. He dropped it. “When I escaped our village in ’forty-one, powerless to stop the butchery of my parents and siblings, I vowed to dedicate my life to our final solution. I call it: Counter Final Solution. ”

The chief of staff looked at him, waiting for an explanation.

“Exterminate our enemies before they exterminate us.”

“You want to kill all the Gentiles in the world?”

“Only those who want to kill us. A dose of preventative medicine.”

“Easier said than done.”

“Kill Nasser, for example, and you’ve eliminated a charismatic leader capable of marshalling a Pan-Arabic military attack on Israel.”

“There would be another Nasser.”

“We kill him too.” Elie pointed at his own chest. “When I’m in charge of Mossad, the game will change. I’ll set up a worldwide network of fearless Jewish assassins and go after our enemies preemptively.”

“Sounds expensive,” Rabin said.

“Money is available. Our agents will operate on every continent. They’ll identify our enemies and eliminate them. We’ll muzzle up preachers who plant seeds of hate, silence demagogues who fan anti-Semitic flames, and bring down the businessmen who sponsor the factories of hate and terror. Under me, Mossad will act as a powerful antidote-dispensing the ultimate vaccination against infectious anti-Semitism.”

General Rabin tossed his cigarette over the low wall. “Human beings are not a disease.”

“Some humans are a deadly virus that must be eradicated.”

“Viral strains can be controlled, not eradicated.”

“A few might slip through the cracks,” Elie conceded. “But even they will know that those with Jewish blood on their hands-or on their minds! — will never sleep in peace again. We’ll hunt them to the ends of the earth. Counter Final Solution! ”

General Rabin peered at him through creased eyes. “You’re a dangerous man, Weiss.”

O ne of the guys whistled, which reminded Lemmy they were not alone. He let go of Tanya. “I was looking for you at the parade. But there were so many people-”

“I didn’t know you’d be there,” she said. “Could have saved me the long drive.”

“You missed me?”

Her eyes smiled and hurt at the same time. She reached up and caressed his hair. “I have bad news.”

“You’re leaving for Europe?”

“No, not yet. It’s about your mother.” Tanya held his hands. “She passed away.”

He heard her words, but they didn’t sound real. How could his mother be dead? “That’s impossible.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“But she wasn’t sick.”

“I wish it wasn’t true, but she died yesterday and, you know, buried last night.” That wasn’t unusual, because Talmud required same-day burial in Jerusalem, lest the rotting dead sullied the holy city.

“It’s my father!” Lemmy kicked the dirt, filled with sudden rage. “He broke her heart! I hate him!”

Tanya waited while he informed his commanding officer and packed a small bag.

The car struggled up the Judean Mountains, its small engine screaming in a high pitch. The narrow road detoured around Arab villages. She steered through tight curves, avoided gaping potholes, and passed under precipitous boulders that seemed ready to drop. She stopped at the side of the road while long military convoys made their way to the Negev Desert. Army trucks towed tanks, heavy artillery, and armored personnel carriers. Civilian trucks with hastily brushed-on camouflage ferried troops, most of them reservists still in their street clothes.

Lemmy watched in silence. He pushed away any thoughts of his mother, of his life before the army. That boy in Neturay Karta had been someone else, not him.

It was dark when they entered Jerusalem. Tanya drove quickly through the narrow streets. Closer to the border, Lemmy saw Orthodox men dig trenches under the glare of electric lights. Women carried heavy shopping bags with food in anticipation of shortages. It was a far cry from the jubilant mood at this morning’s Independence Day Parade.

As the sun was rising, Elie Weiss made his way through the narrow alleys of Meah Shearim to the small apartment where Rabbi Abraham Gerster had resided for almost two decades. He climbed the stairs and found the front door ajar, as was customary during the mourning period, letting out the voices of chanting men and the aroma of baking bread.