Exodus - Leon Uris [155]
The one great strength of the Haganah lay in the fact that its authority was accepted without question by the entire Yishuv. A Haganah command was a positive order. Avidan and the other Haganah leaders were very eareful to use their army only in self-defense. When the 1933 general strike broke out Avidan warned that the Haganah would not try to conquer the Palestine Arabs. “Palestine will be conquered with our sweat.” It was an army of restraint.
There were many in the Haganah who felt that it should not be held in such restraint. These were activists who demanded swift retribution.
Akiva was one of these. Officially he was a dairy farmer in the kibbutz of Ein Or but in reality he was a high man in the Haganah in charge of all defense in the Galilee.
The years had aged Akiva far more than his brother Barak. His face looked tired and his beard was nearly gray. He never fully recovered from the death of Ruth and Sharona. It was a bitterness he carried with him every day of his life.
He was the unofficial leader of the fringe element within the Haganah who demanded more action. As time went on and the trouble heightened, Akiva’s group became very militant. Outside Palestine, splinter groups formed from the main Zionist body to support them.
When the British threw the blockade along the coast of Palestine, Akiva could stand it no longer. He called a rump session of his supporters within the Haganah. They were all angry men like himself and they reached a decision that rocked the Yishuv to its core.
In the spring of 1934 Barak received an urgent call from Avidan to come to Jerusalem.
“A terrible thing has happened, Barak,” Avidan said. “Your brother, Akiva, has withdrawn from the Haganah and taken dozens of our top men with him. Hundreds of rank-and-file people are beginning to follow.”
When the initial shock had passed, Barak sighed. “He has threatened to do that for years. I have been amazed at the restraint he has shown till now. Akiva has been smoldering for decades, ever since our father was killed. He has never recovered from his wife’s death.”
“You know,” Avidan said, “that half my work in the Haganah is to hold our boys back. If we let them, they’d make war on the British tomorrow. Your feelings, my feelings, and Akiva’s feelings are the same, but he can destroy us all. One reason we have been able to achieve what we have in Palestine is that despite our differences we have acted in unison in our outside dealings. The British and the Arabs have always had to negotiate as though with a single person. Now Akiva has a hot-tempered gang of activists. If they start terror tactics the entire Yishuv will have to answer for his actions.”
Barak traveled back north to Ein Or, which was not far from his own moshav of Yad El. Ein Or, like most of the older kibbutzim, had been turned into a veritable garden. As senior member and one of the founders Akiva had a separate little two-room cottage of his own which was filled with books. He even had his own radio and toilet—a rarity in kibbutz life. Akiva loved Ein Or as he had loved Shoshanna before it. Barak had wanted him to live with them at Yad El after the death of Ruth and his daughter but Akiva loved kibbutz life and remained, unhealthily, with their ghosts.
Barak talked softly to his brother. Akiva had heard all the arguments before. He was nervous and restless at the prospect of a showdown with his brother.
“So, the gentlemen of Yishuv Central have sent you around to cry for them. They are becoming experts at appeasement.”
“I would have come without their invitation when I heard what an insane thing you have done,” Barak