Mitla Pass - Leon Uris [193]
“Get your asses down here quick!” Masada called up.
Stray bullets had been ricocheting off the walls all day. As Shlomo raised himself to assist Gideon coming down, he caught a bullet in the stomach and slid, rolled, bounced, and hurtled off the ledge into the command post. Gideon, his injured leg all but inoperable, limped; then he leaped to the ground and crawled to Shlomo.
“Hey, baby! Hey, baby! Talk to me, Pedro! Pedro! Talk to me, man! God dammit, talk to me ... Shlomo! Pedro! Shlomo! Pedro!”
Central to Para 202 STOP Our forces have broken through on northern and central axis STOP They will reach Canal by tonight STOP Yoffe’s Brigade ahead of schedule STOP At dawn tomorrow move Para 202 down Gulf of Suez to assist in capture of Sharm al-Sheikh. SIGNED Dayan, Chief of Staff
Para 202 to Central STOP 1430 Hours. Inquiry STOP Should I leave a defensive force inside Mitla Pass SIGNED Colonel Z.
Central to Para 202 STOP 1435 Hours STOP Negative to your inquiry STOP Abandon Mitla Pass STOP It has no military value SIGNED Dayan, Chief of Staff.
Gideon sat on a tiny knoll at the edge of the airstrip and looked down at the row of corpses, now sacked in plastic bags, waiting to be taken back to Israel. The wounded had already been evacuated. This would be the last flight.
Gideon felt a presence and looked up. Zechariah towered above him, then sat beside him and also stared at the dead.
“Hello, writer. I heard you had a big day directing tank and mortar fire.”
“I don’t speak Hebrew,” Gideon said in an angry whisper. “Shlomo did all the work.”
“You’re too modest. You were very courageous, both of you. You stayed out there in an exposed position for hours.”
“It was the only place we could find with a clear view.”
There was a long silence; bitter nothings passed between them unsaid.
“Do you have a clear view now?” Zechariah asked. “Did we stage for you the battle you craved? Can you now march forward into immortality?”
Gideon closed his eyes and shed a tear. “Shut up, Colonel,” he said.
“Oh, I see. The writer thinks it got too untidy in there. The writer is now passing great judgments. Mitla Pass did not have to be taken. Zechariah is a butcher.”
“You’re reading my thoughts exactly,” Gideon said.
“What the hell did you think you were going to find out there? Supermen? Ancient Hebrews scaling sheer walls with God’s angels circling around them and turning enemy bullets into rose petals?”
Gideon started to move away, but Zechariah grabbed his arm. “Do you think I am without tears, writer?”
“You? Don’t be ridiculous.”
“My kid brother was killed today at El Arish. He was ... he was ... my kid brother... .”
“I’m sorry.”
“Fifty of my boys lie dead down there. I had to learn at an early age to cry inside and only when I’m alone.”
“But this was such an act of futility!” Gideon said clenching his fists.
“All wars are acts of futility, writer. So, Zechariah maybe made a bad judgment in battle. Maybe not. History and the Lord alone will pass on that. We wanted a state. From the time I was twelve years old, I have done nothing but serve that state. Zechariah, Bedouins are marauding a village; Zechariah, give us a paratroop brigade; Zechariah, cross the border and give the Syrians a lesson. Make those boys hard, Zechariah, make them invincible, make them scale cliffs under enemy fire. Ah yes, but Jews are not supposed to die in battle. Jewish generals are supposed to get their wisdom directly from the Almighty. Well, writer, we have been under arms from birth, all of us, and twice in less than a decade we have been called to all-out war. Win it fast, Zechariah! We don’t have the time and resources for a long war! Get it done any way you can! Do you think this is the last time Israel will have to come through Mitla Pass?”
Gideon stared into the troubled face of the colonel.
“But we are a democracy. We will talk and talk and talk. Jews are liberal, peaceful. Warriors are fascists. So, there will be a commission of inquiry filled with intellectuals and our free press will roast me alive. And then all those great thinkers