Exodus - Leon Uris [272]
“That is what is so wonderful about you, Karen. You can make yourself believe things and make me believe them too. I wanted to come back to Gan Dafna and make you proud of me. I wanted to make you proud even though I thought you would be gone.”
Karen lowered her eyes.
“I’ll do anything for you,” he whispered.
She reached up and touched his cheek. “Dov, you are so cold. Please go to my cottage. You can tell Kitty everything. She understands about us. Just as soon as I get off guard duty we will go see Dr. Lieberman together. Be careful. The password is Happy Holiday.”
“Karen. I have thought so much about you all the time. I won’t ever do anything wrong or anything that would hurt you.”
“I know that.”
“Could I kiss you?”
“Yes.”
Their lips brushed with a frightened searching.
“I love you, Karen,” Dov said, and ran off toward the gates of Gan Dafna.
“International law,” Barak Ben Canaan said angrily to the United States delegate, “is that thing which the evil ignore and the righteous refuse to enforce.”
Conversation, no matter how well put, made little difference any longer. If the Jews declared their independence on May 15 they would have to face seven Arab armies alone.
Kawukji’s irregulars and the Palestine Arabs under the command of Safwat and Kadar increased their activities.
The year 1948, the year of decision, came into being.
Through the first few months the Arabs became bolder and the tempo of the fighting increased as the British dismantled their huge military establishment and pulled back from position after position.
THE GALILEE
Irregulars lay siege to kibbutz Manara high in the hills on the Lebanese border. A half dozen other isolated Jewish positions were cut off.
The Arabs launched five straight attacks on Ein Zeitim—the Fountain of the Olives—but each attack was beaten back.
Syrian villagers began to fight. They crossed the Palestine border and attacked the northern Jewish outpost settlements of kibbutz Dan and Kfar Szold. Major Hawks, the British commander, dispatched forces to help drive the Syrians back over the border.
Arabs from Aata, helped again by Syrian villagers and irregulars, attacked Lahavot Habashan—the Flames of the Beshan—Mountains.
Ramat Naftali, named for one of the tribes of ancient Israel, was hit.
Arab activity in Safed increased as the Arabs waited for Major Hawks to withdraw. The blockade against the Jews was beginning to tell as food and water shortages developed in the Cabalist city. Convoys were getting through to Jewish quarters only when the British helped.
HAIFA
The key port of Palestine was a major objective of both sides. For the time, the dock area stayed in British hands, as it was essential for British withdrawal.
In Haifa the Jews had one of their few superior positions in Palestine, in Har Hacarmel above the Arab sector. The British commander, openly pro-Arab, continued to force the Jews out of strategic positions they had won.
Maccabees rolled barrel bombs down the slopes of Carmel into the Arab area and the Jews managed to ambush a huge Arab arms convoy from Lebanon and kill the Arab commander.
All normal business between the two sectors ceased. Amin Azaddin, an officer of the Arab Legion, arrived to assume command of the ever increasing irregular force.
The British held the Jews in check to allow the Arabs to build enough strength to launch an attack up Har Hacarmel.
THE SHARON
This central plain, scene of the great Crusader battles, was the most thickly settled Jewish area. It faced the most heavily populated Arab area of Samaria known, from its shape, as the “Triangle.” Although both sides remained poised, this sector remained relatively quiet.
TEL AVIV-JAFFA
A battlefield appeared between the adjoining cities. Street fighting and patrols continued around the clock. The Maccabees took their place in the center of the Haganah lines. Raids on both sides were constant. The Arabs used a minaret as an observation and sniping post and the position of the intervening British troops prevented the Jews