Avraham Azrieli - The Jerusalem Assassin

Gideon collected the wallet. “Why me? Don’t you have enough Shin Bet staffers to chase this guy?”

“I don’t have anyone from SOD.” Agent Cohen handed him a Beretta 22. “You’ve worked in Europe, you trained with Elie Weiss, you understand Spinoza’s way of thinking. It’s your case now.” Agent Cohen saluted with his stick-taped finger. “From now on, I’m at your service. We can’t afford to fail.”

“No, we can’t.” Gideon pocketed the wallet and stuffed the gun in his belt. “But where do we start?”

“I have agents checking out every hotel in Jerusalem and the vicinity for anyone resembling Spinoza. Also, we’ve copied all the security tapes from the King David Hotel, where he spent the night after running into Elie at the entrance.”

“Were you there?”

Agent Cohen nodded. “I arrested them.”

“Did you notice Spinoza?”

“No. Our agents found him on the security camera tapes later.”

“Do you think Elie noticed him?”

Cohen hesitated. “You know, there was an interruption just when we were leaving the hotel.”

“ Did Elie act up?”

“ No. Weiss was as cool as a rotting cucumber.” Agent Cohen sat back, struggling to remember. “It was odd. I think Rabbi Gerster tripped. We all stopped, and he yelled something. But later, in the car, a strange thing happened.”

“What?”

“That rabbi is a tough one.” Agent Cohen shook his head. “I can’t explain it, but as we drove off from the hotel, he burst out crying.”

“ Crying? ”

*

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin waited in a large conference room reserved for government meetings held while the Knesset was in session. Two bodyguards frisked Lemmy and Itah at the door, which remained open. Music came from speakers in the ceiling, a Hebrew folksong from the early days of Zionism.

“ You chose an interesting day to visit,” he said, shaking their hands.

Itah said, “Are there any boring days here?”

“ Yom Kippur used to be boring,” the prime minister said. “What’s this about the UN radar? Were you that kid Elie Weiss sent in?”

“ That was me,” Lemmy said, removing the black hat with the attached beard and side locks. “Sorry about the disguise.”

“ I’m sure there’s an explanation for this.” Rabin chuckled. “You know, all these years people have called me a military genius, but if not for what you did that morning, they would be calling me an idiot.”

They laughed.

“ So tell me what I don’t know,” Rabin said, lighting a cigarette.

Lemmy quickly retold the story of his recruitment by Elie Weiss in 1967, the destruction of the radar just before Israel’s jets took off, his faked death, and training in Europe as an agent for SOD. He skipped the Koenig account, but described the events of the past week.

Rabin listened without interrupting. He showed neither surprise nor alarm. When Lemmy finished, he asked, “Your father’s papers?”

“Here.” He handed the note and documents.

Rabin read through quickly and removed his glasses. “Interesting, but misguided. I was briefed by Shin Bet last night. Freckles and his right-wing rabblerousing was never authorized by Shin Bet. It was all part of the scheme Weiss cooked up to taint the Likud, culminating in the staged assassination attempt to boost my popularity. Shin Bet confronted Freckles last week and scared him enough to switch his loyalty. They shut down this SOD operation, locked up Elie Weiss, and broke up the ILOT group-I’m told they’re a bunch of kids, boy scouts.”

“ Boy scouts,” Itah asked, “with guns?”

“ With blanks,” Rabin said. “Shin Bet confirmed there were no live bullets. It was all a game to make noise in the media, to prime it for the final act of trying to shoot me, also with blanks. But it’s all over now. Finished.”

Lemmy was taken by his gruff charisma, which radiated the confidence of a man certain of his goals. “Knowing Elie Weiss, I suggest you still wear a Kevlar vest to the peace rally.”

Rabin chuckled. “What can he do from a hospital bed?”

“ If anything was supposed to happen on Saturday, he must have set the wheels in motion long ago. That’s how he operates.”

“ Listen, Weiss is a hero of Zionism, a defender of the Jewish people. I respect his achievements. But his time has passed. I can’t indulge his grandiose ideas, especially not in today’s world. We’re making peace, but he acts as if we’re still in the middle of the Holocaust.”

“ He’s a very capable man,” Lemmy insisted, “despite his age and emphysema.”

“ Unfortunately,” the prime minister said. “I’m told he’s dying.”

“ Even if that’s true, what about Tanya? I saw Shin Bet agents try to kill her.”

“ How do you know they were Shin Bet?” Rabin lit a cigarette. “The report I received states that, as part of the VIP Protection Unit’s investigation of Weiss’s fake assassination plot, they followed Tanya to Zurich, but lost her there. She apparently travelled to Amsterdam, where she was hit by a tram.”

“ I was there,” Lemmy said, “and I didn’t push her.”

“ Perhaps Weiss had other agents in Amsterdam? Some kind of a redundancy?”

Lemmy had no answer to that.

“And since you mentioned Tanya, would you know by any chance where she is?”

“No, but I know she’s in good hands. Someone I trust.”

“I’m pleased to hear that.” The prime minister smiled. “She’s the most senior woman we have.”

“In Mossad?”

“ Probably in the whole Israeli government service.”

“ Then why were your agents following her?”

Rabin stood up. “Listen, those Shin Bet boys are entrusted with my personal safety. They do their best to keep me alive. How can I question their loyalty?”

“ Maybe they’re acting out of misguided loyalty. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

“ Touche.” He got up and went to a large board pinned to the wall. “Come, look at this. Maybe it’ll help you understand what I’m dealing with here.”

The color-coded graph showed the political spectrum. In the center, the tallest bars stood for Labor and Likud. The other parties were listed on the left or the right according to their affiliation.

On the left were: Meretz, Hadash, Democratic Front for Peace-Communists, Arab Democratic Party, Progressive List for Peace, Hatikva, Movement for Democracy and Aliyah, New Liberal Idea.

On the right, following Likud, were: Advancement of the Zionist Idea, Tzomet A, Tzomet B, Moledet, Golan Loyalists.

Below the graph was a list of the religious parties: United Torah Judaism, Sephardic Religious Party/Shas, National Religious Party, Meimad, Geulat Israel, Torah and Land.

Next was a list of non-partisan groups: Gush Emunim, YESHA (Settlements of Judea and Samaria), Kach/Kahana Khai, Neturay Karta. The third list was of the parties-in-formation for the next elections: Russians’ Party, Pensioners’ Party, Tali, Women’s Party, On Wheels, Mortgage Victims, Natural Law Party, Tzipor, Mothers in Black, Parents Against Silence, Officers Against Occupation, Citizens for the Golan Heights, Pikanti.

Lemmy asked, “What’s Pikanti?

Itah answered. “Salad dressing factory’s workers believe they have a good shot at a seat in the Knesset to fight against income tax.”

“I see.”

Fourth was a list of Arab groups: PLO, PLO Hawks, PFLP, Al Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah.

“Do you realize why I don’t have time to worry about Weiss or micromanage my own protection unit?” Prime Minister Rabin pointed to the board. “Israel is boiling, and I have to sit on the lid. And every group of radicals spawns another one, even more idealistic, more pious, more righteous, more extreme. So we have to use administrative detentions and other methods to stay the course.”