Exodus - Leon Uris [259]
Poor old fellow, Kitty thought. Both his son and daughter had left the university and were in the Negev Brigade of the Palmach, so far away. She walked to the door and knocked. The housekeeper, as old and as quaint as Dr. Lieberman, led her to his study. The little hunchback was engrossed in translating some ancient Hebraic on a piece of pottery. A soft background of a Schumann symphony played on the radio. Dr. Lieberman looked up and saw Kitty and set his magnifying glass down.
“Shalom,” Kitty said.
He smiled. She had never greeted him before in Hebrew. “Shalom, Kitty,” he said. “It is such a nice word for good friends to use to say good-by.”
“Shalom is a beautiful word and it is also a nice way for good friends to say hello.”
“Kitty ... my dear ...”
“Yes, Dr. Lieberman ... Shalom ... I am staying at Gan Dafna. This is where I belong.”
BOOK 4
Awake in Glory
Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities are overpast.
He shall send from heaven, and save me; he reproacheth him that would swallow me up ... God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen, themselves ... Awake up, my glory ... I will rouse the dawn ...
The Fifty-Seventh Psalm of David
Chapter One
AUTUMN 1947
UNITED NATIONS
FLUSHING MEADOW, NEW YORK
The six-thousand-year-old case of the Jewish people was placed before the conscience of man.
Chaim Weizmann of the World Zionists and elder statesman Barak Ben Canaan led a twelve-man delegation to Flushing Meadow for the showdown. This delegation, seasoned by years of frustration and adversity, held no illusions.
An informal headquarters was established in Dr. Weizmann’s mid-Manhattan apartment. The delegates were assigned to the task of getting votes. Weizmann took as his personal job the alerting of Jews throughout the world to bring attention and pressure upon their governments.
Barak Ben Canaan worked quietly behind the scenes. It was his job to keep abreast of the hourly shifts in strength, analyze and plug up weak spots, maneuver and reassign his men to meet any sudden changes, and spearhead the committee-room debates.
After initial parliamentary jockeying, the Palestine partition went on the agenda.
The Arabs went into Lake Success sure of victory. They had obtained UN membership for the Moslem state of Afghanistan and the medieval feudal kingdom of Yemen, bringing the Arab-Moslem bloc to eleven votes in the General Assembly. These latter were nations who had sat out World War II in silence and declared war against Germany in the last moment to qualify for the United Nations membership. The Yishuv, which had contributed so richly to the Allied cause, had no vote.
The Arabs used the eleven votes to dangle as bait before delegates from smaller nations. In exchange for a vote against partition, they offered their votes as a bribe to those who aspired to some of the lush jobs in the UN.
The Arabs also took full advantage of the cold war that existed between the two giants, the United States and the Soviet Union, deftly playing off one against the other. From the start it was obvious that passage of partition would need the blessing of both of these nations. Russia and the United States had never before joined on an issue and it appeared little likely that they would do it now.
To win partition a two thirds majority was needed. The Yishuv had to get twenty-two votes merely to offset the eleven of the Arab-Moslem bloc. From that point on they had to obtain two votes to each one the Arabs obtained. Mathematically the Arabs needed only a half dozen additional votes