Exodus - Leon Uris [234]
With the general gone from the scene the terrorist activity dwindled. The pending arrival of the United Nations committee lay an uneasy calm over the land.
In late June of 1947, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, known as UNSCOP, arrived in Haifa. The neutrals represented Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Guatemala, Uruguay, Peru, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Iran, and India.
The odds were long against the Jews. Iran was a Moslem country. India was partly Moslem and its delegate was a Moslem as well as representing a British Commonwealth nation. Canada and Australia were also of the British Commonwealth. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, in the Soviet bloc, had a traditional history of anti-Zionism. The South American representatives, Uruguay, Peru, and Guatemala, were Catholic in predomination and could possibly be influenced by the Vatican’s lukewarm feeling toward Zionism. Only Sweden and the Netherlands could be considered fully nonpartisan.
None the less, the Yishuv welcomed UNSCOP.
The Arabs opposed the presence of the United Nations. Inside Palestine a general strike of the Arabs was called, demonstrations were held, and the air was filled with oaths and threats. Outside of Palestine the Arab countries began riots and blood pogroms against their Jews.
Barak Ben Canaan, the old warrior and negotiator, was once again pressed into service by the Yishuv. He joined Ben Gurion and Dr. Weizmann on the advisory committee to UNSCOP.
Chapter Thirteen
KITTY AND KAREN RETURNED to Gan Dafna. Kitty waited for the right moment to have it out with Karen. When the letter from Dov Landau arrived, she decided to delay it no longer.
Kitty poured a lemon rinse over Karen’s head and wrung out her long, thick brown hair and rubbed the girl’s head briskly with a big towel.
“Phew,” Karen said, taking a comer of the towel to wipe the soap from her eyes.
The water boiled in the teakettle. Karen got up and tied the towel around her head and brewed a pot of tea. Kitty sat at the kitchen table filing her fingernails. She began to paint them carefully with polish.
“What’s bothering you?” Karen said disarmingly.
“Good Lord, I’m not even allowed the privacy of my own thoughts.”
“Something is wrong. Something’s been wrong since you carne back from your trip to the Sea of Galilee. Did something happen between you and Ari?”
“Plenty happened between me and Ari but that’s not what is disturbing me. Karen, we have to have a talk about us, and our futures. I guess we’d better do it right now.”
“I don’t understand.”
Kitty waved her hands to dry her fingernails. She stood up and lit a cigarette awkwardly. “You know how much you mean to me and how much I love you?”
“I think so,” the girl whispered.
“Since that first day at Caraolos I’ve wanted you to be my girl.”
“I’ve wanted it that way too, Kitty.”
“Then you’ll believe that I have thought this all out carefully and what I want to do is for your own good. You must have faith in me.”
“I do ... you know that.”
“What I am about to say will be hard for you to appreciate fully. It is hard for me to come to this, too, for I am very fond of many children here and I have grown quite attached to Gan Dafna. Karen, I want to take you home to America with me.”
The girl stared at Kitty as though she had been slapped. For a moment she did not even understand or believe she had heard it right.
“Home? But ... but this is my home. I have no other home.”
“I want your home to be with me—always.”
“I want that too, Kitty. I want it more than anything. It is so strange.”
“What is, dear?”
“When you said home, in America.”
“But I am an American, Karen, and I miss my home.”
Karen bit her lip to keep from crying. “That’s funny, isn’t it? I thought we would go on like we were. You would be at Gan Dafna and ...”
“And you would go off into the Palmach ... and then to some kibbutz out on a border?”
“I guess that’s what I thought.”
“There are many things I have learned to love here, but this is not my country and these are not