by Hesh Kestin
“You came here to flatter me?”
“I came here to tell you not to confront Zeltzer. Don’t push him into a corner.”
“Extraordinary measures is my call.”
“Nobody challenges that. Even Zeltzer must come to terms with it. It’s not you—it’s having someone tell him how to run his organization. He’s not a bad man.”
“He’s fooled me, then.”
“Dahlia . . .”
“I’ve got to finish this. Can we talk later?”
“Love to, but I’ve been called elsewhere. Either way, there’s not a lot of time. Look, I want you to talk to Al-Masri.”
She nods as she pulls down her ear protectors, transfers the pistol to her left hand, and resumes shooting. The targets fall with implausible rapidity.
28
OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER
Security Cabinet
Memorandum of Record
Present
The PRIME MINISTER, presiding
BEN-DOV, Carmela, Foreign Minister
AL-SHEIKH, Yarden, Minister of Internal Security
BLUMENTHAL, Shai, Minister of Defense
ADMONI, David, Minister Without Portfolio
ARAD, Zalman, Security Adviser to the PM
ROSCH, Dror, Cabinet Secretary
Invitees
TOLEDANO, Aviv, IDF Chief of Staff
LEVAVI, Rafael, Director-General, Mossad
ZELTZER, Chaim, Chief Commissioner, Israel Police
SHEM-TOV, Kobi, Deputy Chief Commissioner, Israel Police
The Prime Minister
Thank you all for coming. A word to those present for the first time: Nothing of what is said here leaves this room. A transcript will be made public thirty years from the last day of the current year, so that history—not our friends in tomorrow’s newspaper—may make its judgment. Before that time, nothing of what is said here will be publicized. Tell your wife—Carmela, in your case, husband—and your career will be terminated. If we must manufacture evidence against you, if it happens that an auto accident occurs, whatever must be done, it will be done. Zero tolerance. Dror?
Dror Rosch, Cabinet Secretary
Thank you, sir. Two subjects on today’s agenda: [1] This morning’s infiltration of the northern border; [2] The incident of Mohammed Al-Masri. Regarding [1], the PM calls for the report of the Chief of Staff.
Aviv Toledano, IDF Chief of Staff
Sometime before dawn, the border northeast of Avivim was penetrated by a force of at least twenty-two fighters, presumably Hezbollah, utilizing flying devices known as hang gliders, a kind of large kite propelled by wind currents. The enemy force attacked a passing border-inspection patrol, killing seven and taking two prisoners. Within minutes they fled back into Lebanon after shorting the electrified fences and cutting through. The prisoners have been identified as a lieutenant of paratroops, son of a person known to this office, and a Bedouin tracker of the Abu-Aziz. One appears to have been seriously wounded, but which one is not known. Per standing policy, names will not be disclosed to the public until their families have been informed, and perhaps well after. Monitoring of Arab channels has not yielded useful information. To this point, no group has claimed credit for the attack. Finally, there is as yet no certainty that other infiltrators did not deploy south into Israel when the main force returned to Lebanon. In order to prevent panic, no civilian officials other than those in settlements close to the border have been notified. No suspicious activity has been reported. IDF operations are ongoing.
The Prime Minister
Thank you, Toli. Yarden?
Yarden Al-Sheikh, Minister of Internal Security
If we don’t have a follow-up incident tonight or by noon tomorrow, threat level is close to zero. There is simply no reason to infiltrate fighters in this manner unless to provoke havoc or, alternately, a distraction. Either way it is extraordinarily risky for the infiltrators; finding shelter with the civilian population even more so. The number of Arab informants in northern Israel is, in effect, the entire Arab population of northern Israel. Historically, these will rat out their brothers, if only not to have their own loyalty to the state called into question. As well, monetary rewards have proved to be not unhelpful.
David Admoni, Minister Without Portfolio
We have recently had anti-government demonstrations, Alon, that would seem to call into question this loyalty.
Yarden Al-Sheikh, Minister of Internal Security
Jews demonstrate against the government all the time. Should Arabs not? Sheltering an armed infiltrator is another matter. My personal opinion: There are no infiltrators. Not least because one man left behind, if captured, might compromise the cousins’ entire infrastructure.
The Prime Minister
Which brings us to these damn kites. Can the border be sealed against them?
Shai Blumenthal, Minister of Defense
We are working on installation of low-altitude radar. Apparently, the Americans have found it successful on their border with Mexico.
Zalman Arad, Security Adviser to the PM
Locking the barn door, are we?
Shai Blumenthal, Minister of Defense
Zalman, may I remind you seven soldiers have been killed and two taken hostage. If the security services envisioned such an operation, I don’t recall getting the memo.
The Prime Minister
Gentlemen, please. Shaike, when exactly will defense against this be operational?
Shai Blumenthal, Minister of Defense
Toli?
Aviv Toledano, IDF Chief of Staff
One week. Until then the entire northern border will be manned continuously, one set of eyes every five hundred meters.
Zalman Arad, Security Adviser to the PM
A week?
Aviv Toledano, IDF Chief of Staff
Mr. Adviser, this entails over two hundred sets of portable low-level radar devices, not something you pick up at the corner grocery. These devices are currently being sourced through Washington on an accelerated basis.
David Admoni, Minister Without Portfolio
Do we even know if they work?
Yarden Al-Sheikh, Minister of Internal Security
Perhaps they’ll work too well. Couldn’t they pick up hawks, owls? Eagles for sure. Antelope. Antelope leap three meters high.
David Admoni, Minister Without Portfolio
Yarden may be right. How much difference is there between the size of a hang glider and an eagle? Will these radars know one from the other?
The Prime Minister
Toli, your people are aware of such issues?
Aviv Toledano, IDF Chief of Staff
Absolutely, sir. Regarding size sensitivity, I am informed this is relatively simple to calibrate. Regarding the similarity in size of eagles vis-à-vis hang gliders, a secondary visual system will be in place utilizing drones. In cases of doubt, we will destroy both terrorists and eagles indiscriminately.
[Laughter.]
The Prime Minister
We’ll have the Society for the Protection of Nature on our heads. Shai, you have something to add?
Shai Blumenthal, Minister of Defense
Mr. Prime Minister, as you can imagine, this will call for a significant cost in reservists—we estimate four thousand men per week—plus the unexpected acquisition cost of the radar devices. Our budget is already—
The Prime Minister
To be taken up in Thursday’s meeting of the finance committee. Prepare your numbers. Now, since we are already talking about our friends in Washington . . .
Carmela Ben-Dov, Foreign Minister
The Foreign Ministry envisions no problem with purchase of the radar devices. However, with regard to military action I’m afraid that political considerations indicate any but the most discreet—
Zalman Arad, Security Adviser to the PM
Two of our boys have been kidnapped. You are saying that politics—
Carmela Ben-Dov, Foreign
Minister
Zalman, don’t fill my mouth with your words. I am saying only that the cabinet must in every case be aware of implications outside the immediate neighborhood. Next week the U.S. president will be in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain. An invasion of Leb—
Zalman Arad, Security Adviser to the PM
Now who is putting words in mouths? I said something about an invasion? But at the least a surgical operation to remove our boys. Also, it would not hurt to show these beasts we can reach out for them anywhere.
The Prime Minister
Zalman, Zalman. Why is it you portray us as a bunch of pacifists meeting to celebrate the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi? Rafi, when will we have a postal address for such a package?
Rafael Levavi, Director-General, Mossad
Mr. Prime Minister, this is a question I have been pressing since we received the original information. Our best guess at this point is that the hostages will remain in Lebanon. The regime in Damascus is unlikely to risk being found to have them in Syria. Alas, frankly and to our sorrow, to hide two individuals in Lebanon is not a great challenge. We have faced this problem many times before. All I am able to say at this point is that we are working on all fronts: electronic surveillance, eyes on the ground, and informants. So far . . .
The Prime Minister
So far?
Rafael Levavi, Director-General, Mossad
So far, nothing.
The Prime Minister
On this subject only, anything else? All right, then. David, you can add this to your portfolio without portfolios. Let me be clear: Per standing policy, names of the hostages will not be released without my direct authorization. All press contacts on the subject via Minister Admoni, who will immediately establish the appropriate provisional infrastructure. Duvvid?
David Admoni, Minister Without Portfolio
Done.
The Prime Minister
Two minutes left. Dror?
Dror Rosch, Cabinet Secretary
Certainly, sir. It seems early this morning a well-known anti-Israel propagandist, Mohammed Al-Masri, a citizen of Israel resident in Canada, was apprehended entering the country with the equivalent in euros of about one million dollars. In cash.
The Prime Minister
A million Israelis are resident abroad. God willing each should return with such a treasure. Chief commissioner, why is this a problem for the security cabinet?
Chaim Zeltzer, Chief Commissioner,
Israel Police
First let me say it is an honor to—
The Prime Minister
Chaim, we have ninety seconds.
Chaim Zeltzer, Chief Commissioner,
Israel Police
Certainly. Dep. Comm. Kobi Shem-Tov will brief your honors on the relevant details. Kobi.
Kobi Shem-Tov, Deputy Chief Commissioner, Israel Police
Thank you, chief. In sum, though we have only begun to interview Mr. Al-Masri, it is unlikely this hoard of cash is for the stated purpose of building a house for his mother. Given its poor hiding place, we believe the cash was meant to be discovered. Thus we have a well-known person—I would say even a celebrity—under detention for a crime that was intended in some way to embarrass the state. A put-up job. There is some suspicion, given the timing, that today’s kidnapping on the border is not unrelated. But the specific nature of the connection, if any, is unknown.
The Prime Minister
Thank you, deputy commissioner. And let me say all of us are pleased that you have brought your expertise from the Army to the Police. We expect to hear more on this subject, and look forward to seeing your face in these premises. Dror?
Dror Rosch, Cabinet Secretary
Today’s meeting of the security cabinet is adjourned. Those who are not cabinet members are now asked to leave while the cabinet further discusses these and other matters in informal session. Thank you for attending.
29
In her new office, on the top floor with a view of Arab East Jerusalem, Dahlia answers the phone. “Five minutes?” she says. “No need, I’ll find it.” The office is done in Israel government modern: a large desk with a figured wood top, two intentionally uncomfortable visitors’ chairs, on one wall a framed photo of the current president, an inoffensive hack whose lack of initiative over a long political career discouraged one party or another from exercising its veto on his selection. The man is known to be so indecisive that a popular joke has him dithering between ordering coffee or tea, finally telling the waiter: “Half and half.”
The bookcase beneath this portrait stands empty but for a copy of The Geneva Conventions of 1949, All Protocols, next to it a four-drawer filing cabinet with no apparent rust, and on the other side a two-seat sofa covered in green leatherette. The walls are painted a rudimentary beige. An ashtray full of butts marked with Dahlia’s pale coral lipstick sits on the desk, along with a laptop for which she has been supplied the code, which is Dahlia Barr spelled backward, an indication of the sophistication of the Israel Police: At least three reporters have already hacked into the system. The ensuing news articles were thought to be the result of leaks from personnel within the department. In fact, the articles simply revealed a consistent lack of investment in the national police force of the country that leads the world in software development.
Though the building is centrally air-conditioned, a small supplemental unit hums in one window. Whoever specified the building’s engineering had not considered that in central Israel, where summer temperatures can reach 115 degrees Fahrenheit, a top-floor office beneath an inadequately insulated roof requires a good deal more cooling than a similar office on the ground floor.
Dahlia assumes the office itself is bugged, taking it for granted and not bothering to look for the device. Usually a decoy bug can be found in the telephone handset, meant to be discovered so as to put off the target from searching further. The phone itself is pink. Until Dahlia had a look at other offices, she assumed this was in honor of her status as one of the few persons of authority whose genitalia are internal. But no, all the phones in the building are pink. Doubtless someone’s brother-in-law had a supply of pink phones he needed to unload. The blackout blinds that end a foot above the windowsill might have had a similar provenance, or it could be the same person who specified their length was the one who designed the air-conditioning.
Dahlia checks her makeup, picks up her purse, and goes to find Interview Room 32b, thinking as she walks down the long narrow corridor to the stairs, This is not my job. My job is to monitor interrogations, not carry them out. By the time she reaches Interview Room 32b—between rooms 31b and 33b; the building’s anonymous architect, doubtless also someone’s brother-in-law, cleverly placed 31a and 31c on other floors—Dahlia has reached a somewhat more positive conclusion: As much as she does not wish to interview Mohammed Al-Masri, she at least can be sure the object of the interview will not be subjected to torture. Except perhaps, she muses, by nostalgia.
30
In the interview room, Dahlia finds two constables standing like statues behind a wheelchair in which is secured a shackled figure with a black bag over his head. “Officers, remove the headgear,” she says.
One looks to the other. The bag is removed. Mohammed Al-Masri’s eyes squeeze closed at the light. Before they adjust, Dahlia has an opportunity to examine his face. It could use a shave but is otherwise in fair shape, all things considered.
“Dahlia Barr.”
“Long time.”
“I’ve been demanding a lawyer since the airport. I expected either none or some hack.”
“I regret this treatment, Mohammed.”
“Edward.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Edward Al-Masri. That is the name on my Canadian passport. That is the name by which I am known in the West. Can I get some water?”
“Officers?”
One of them opens a plastic bottle of water on the small table.
“Untie him.”
“No can do,” the constable says. “Protocol.”
She takes the bottle and holds it to Al-Masri’s lips. More goes down his shirtfront than in his mouth. Patiently she holds the bottle until he shakes his head, no more. She turns to the constables. “Now be so kind as to leave us, or is that against protocol as well?”
“Not so long as he’s tied.”
They shut the door behind them with an eerie finality, as though she and Al-Masri are doomed to be together for eternity, or at least—Dahlia thinks—until the pressure on his bladder determines otherwise.
“Mohammed, I’d like to help you.”
“Edward.”
“I’m not used to it.”
“I am. I didn’t call you Dahlia Fine, did I?”
“Admittedly we’ve both undergone a few changes since high school,” she says. “Will you let me help you?”
“Will I let the best-known human rights attorney in Israel represent me? Did you ever take me for a fool?”
“I expected you to say in Palestine.”
Al-Masri smiles. “A matter of time.”
“Really?”
“Injustice cannot last forever. This thing, this entity you people have created, it’s a Potemkin village.”
“It looks like this Potemkin village can sentence you to five years for currency smuggling, a good deal more if it turns out the money was intended to promote terror.”
“That’s what lawyers are for. How long will it take to get me out?”
“Mohammed,” she says. “That’s a matter of time as well.”
“Edward.”
“Edward.”
“Yes?”
“I think I should tell you: You’re making an assumption. I’m not what you think I am.”
“A virgin?”
“None of us is. How is your wife? You’ve a son, no?”
“Let me make this easy for both of us,” he says. “We’ve known each other a long time. Your mother and mine are friends. You were regularly a guest at my mother’s table. But at the moment chitchat is not on my agenda. Act like my attorney and get me the fuck out of here.”
“Tell me about the money.”
“Planted.”
