Exodus

by Leon Uris

Kammal eyed the return of the Jews to the Promised Land with suspicion. The Jews puzzled him, for they had come in peace, purchased their land legally, and spoke only in lofty terms of redemption. Kammal, in understanding the basic drive behind the “return,” admitted to himself that it was a just and true move—but yet his mind could not believe that the newcomers would not eventually engulf and exploit the Arabs as all the others before them had done.

THE NEED FOR IDEALISM in Palestine was satisfied by the coming of the Second Aliyah. These newcomers were not content to be merchants in Jaffa nor did they wish to live off the alms of coreligionists. They were fired with a mission to redeem the land. They set out in groups for the land the effendis had sold and tried to dry up the swamps. It was terrible work. To many of the old-timers the thought of Jews laboring in the fields like Arabs was unbelievable. In Palestine they had been the overseers. In the Old Country they did not work the land at all. Of all the gifts the Second Aliyah brought with them the greatest, perhaps, was the pronouncement of self-labor and the conquest of labor. Through their chief spokesman, A. D. Gordon, labor was made something dignified. Gordon was an older man and a scholar but he gave up scholarship for the greater task of working the soil with his own hands.

The writing style here! With! All the sillyass stops, starts and Emphasis! Is right straight out of third grade and very! Grating!

ROYAL ARMORED CORPS WITH KING’S OWN HUSSARS, 53RD WORCESTERSHIRE, 249TH AIRBORNE PARK, DRAGOON GUARDS, ROYAL LANCERS, QUEEN’S ROYAL, EAST SURREY, MIDDLESEX, GORDON HIGHLANDERS, ULSTER RIFLES, HERTFORDSHIRE REGIMENT—the list of British troops in Palestine ran on and on. Ari threw the papers down on Avidan’s desk. “Whom are they fighting, the Russian Army?” “You see, Ari? Every day I go through it with some young hotheads in the Palmach. Why don’t we raid? Why don’t we come out and fight? Do you think I like it? Ari ... they have twenty per cent of the combat strength of the British Army here. One hundred thousand troops, not counting the Trans-Jordan Arab Legion. Sure, the Maccabees run around shooting up everything, grabbing the limelight, accusing us of hiding.” Avidan slammed his fist on the desk. “By God, I’m trying to put an army together. We haven’t even got ten thousand rifles to fight with and if the Haganah goes, we all go with it. “You see, Ari ... the Maccabees can keep mobility and hide with a few thousand blowhards. We have got to stall and keep stalling. We can’t have a showdown. We can’t get Haven-Hurst angry, either. One British soldier here for every five Jews.” Ari

Suddenly there came a sound of voices singing from outside. “What on earth is that?” Kitty asked. “It is for you,” Karen smiled. “They have been practicing in secret for two weeks.” Kitty walked to the window. Fifty of her children stood outside the cottage holding candles in their hands, singing a Christmas carol. Kitty put on her coat and walked out on the porch with Karen. Behind the children she could see the lights of the valley settlements over two thousand feet below. One by one the cottage doors opened with curious onlookers. She did not understand the words but the melody was very old. “Merry Christmas, Kitty,” Karen said. Tears fell down Kitty’s cheek. “I never thought I would live to hear ‘Silent Night’ sung in Hebrew. This is the most beautiful Christmas present I have ever had.”

“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.”