No Time for Tears

by Cynthia Freeman

  In the pasha’s office Aaron came quickly to the issue. “You know that my men at Athlit have proved their loyalty to this government. I want this harassment to stop. Their contribution is too valuable to the war to have them spending their lives in jail.”

  “Not all of your people, Aaronson, but I grant you that you and others have proved of value. I had no idea, I assure you, that your people were being jailed”—which wasn’t entirely the case—“and I give you my word the matter will be taken care of….”

  It was at about this time that Dovid was waking up with a terrible knot in his stomach from the blow he’d taken. His surprise, and Absalom’s, at the sudden appearance of the guards not to string them up but actually, amidst muttered curses and threats, to escort them out of the prison and to a hotel in Jaffa was beyond belief. At first they wondered if they were being taunted into believing that somehow they were saved and then the string would be pulled and the rope would replace it. The sadism of the Turks was not beyond such behavior. Only when rood was served them did they decide even the Turks would not go to such lengths for abusive sport, and that their rescue, this time at least, was real.

  “You know,” Absalom said as he lay back on his bed, which was next to Dovid’s, “Aaron either is a man of great importance to the pasha or has gone over to the enemy, and I guess I better quickly say that I believe it’s the former that has gotten us out of this.”

  “Yes,” Dovid said, “and we need to take advantage of it, not just be grateful we’re not dead. Believe me, only because he thinks he needs us does the pasha hold off from having us hanged. We can’t go on forever trusting to that, even with Aaron’s influence. What if the locusts don’t come? It seems we need a disaster to make us worth keeping alive…”

  “I agree, let’s destroy them once and for all—”

  “What’s your plan?”

  “Open rebellion. No more using the cover of the British army—”

  “No … that would be suicide, and we Jews have done enough of that. That just about got you and me hanged. And for what… ? A few boxes of ammunition … I’m tired of lost causes … let’s win for a change …”

  “Fine, what do you suggest?” Absalom said, lowering his voice.

  “Espionage,” and now Dovid’s voice dropped to a near-whisper.

  “Espionage? And you say open revolt would be suicide …”

  “Absalom … we can supply vital information to the British, information they don’t have and could never get. They’d listen—”

  “I don’t agree. The only thing they’d listen to is a Jewish fighting force inside Palestine.”

  “Maybe, but I still say that would be suicide for us. I want to see the Turks with their throats cut, not ours. We both want the same thing, Absalom, it’s just a question of how best to get it.”

  The tensions were broken between the two men when Aaron walked into the hotel room. Their greetings were brief, and it wasn’t until they’d arrived back at Aaron’s house in Zichron that they spoke to him.

  Both men smoldered with their own ideas that had taken form in the hotel room back in Jaffa.

  Without preamble, Absalom said, “The only way that we can speed up the liberation of Palestine is through rebellion …”

  Aaron was shocked at the suggestion. He hardly had any love for the Turks, but the notion of insurrection seemed empty and wrong to him … “No, Absalom, the British have the arms to liberate Palestine—”

  “It’s our national duty to organize on our own behalf.”

  “I suppose I’m more a scientist than a political activist. But you know my sympathies, and my usefulness. Open rebellion didn’t get you and Dovid out of the hangman’s noose.”

  Absalom’s eyes flamed with anger. “You’re a scientist, Dovid is a believer in helping the British, who treated us like mules. I say to hell with both of you. Let me know when you think we’ve had enough punishment,” and without further word he went out of the room and slammed the door behind him.

  Aaron and Dovid sat in awkward silence, both knowing that Absalom’s anger, while sincere, was also usually shortlived.

  Aaron said, “You must have had something to say to one another in that hotel room. I have a feeling, Dovid, that you’d like to tell me what’s on your mind.”

  “You’re right, and I’m not going to be diplomatic. Now, you may be a scientist who doesn’t want to get involved … and you’ve said I’ve some ability in that direction too … but whether you like it or not, you’re involved in this as much as Absalom or myself. Because of the position you hold within the Turkish government, you’re the key that’s going to open up doors for us, Aaron. Now, Absalom’s angry for good reason, and so am I. We differ only on means. We don’t want to wait for the British, on their own, to liberate us. What Absalom wants is revolt and I disagree with that. What I think would be the best way for us would be to use our advantage and the British … gather information to speed up the British effort against our enemies. I don’t for a minute think the British are our friends … they use us and we tell ourselves our purposes are served. Well, if that’s so, let’s help them to use us even more—to get what we want. Let us control our destiny, by some manipulating of the British, for a change…”

  Aaron shook his head. “Both of you seem to have got our salvation pretty well worked out for us. Well, I still refuse to become involved in either one of your plans. Now, if you don’t mind me saying so, I think it’s time for you to go back home to Chavala.”

  When Chavala saw Dovid come through the front door, the profound anxiety she’d felt in the last days was hardly lessened by what she saw in his face. Her heart went out to him. Quietly she went to him and put her arms around him, “My darling Dovid, it must have been terrible … thank God you’re home.”

  “Yes, thank God, and Aaron.”

  There was something in the tone of Dovid’s voice that contradicted his words. He didn’t sound grateful. What she caught in his voice was anger at both God and Aaron … well, tonight she would not question him. Quietly she said, “Dovid, come, let me get you something to eat.” The second greatest offering a woman could make, she thought wryly.

  At this moment it wasn’t food he needed to offset his frustration. “No, Chavala, I’m really not hungry …”

  “Then let me fix you a hot tub.”

  “That sounds very good. Thank you.”

  After the bath Dovid lay down, Chavala alongside him. But as she clung to him she still felt the tensions hadn’t subsided. “Dovid, I know the strain you’ve been under, the things you went through in jail, but I also know there’s something more … what is it … ?”

  “It’s nothing … or maybe it’s everything. I don’t know, Chavala, I guess what I’m trying to say is, maybe I would have felt better if I’d joined the British in the fighting. Like Moishe did—”

  “Oh, Dovid, darling, everyone fights in his own way. You were wounded, for God’s sake … and look what Aaron has been able to accomplish …”

  The muscles in Dovid’s jaw tightened. “He has pointed that out. But the fact is, while the Turks are destroying the whole Yishuv, we’re safe here at Zichron.”

  “Dovid, you’re all doing the best you can. The problems are huge … you can’t expect Aaron to be the Messiah. I’m sure he’s doing what he feels is right—”

  “I’m sure.”

  Chavala clung close to her husband and knew that this was no time to argue with her husband.

  Well, she was still a woman. She knew how to make that contribution. And she did…

  The next week Dovid made the rounds of the settlements. The complaints were no different than the ones he’d heard ever since the war began. The Turks were requisitioning their wheat and animals, and what the Turks didn’t take the Arabs stole.

  He journeyed north. The Jewish soldiers in the labor battalion were clearing the roads in the unrelenting heat of the noonday sun. Their lips were parched white from too little water. Because the work was
going slowly, many wore cruel lash marks on their backs. Their faces bore the scars of brutality too. Those who dropped from exhaustion were chained to a tree and beaten.

  Dovid had seen these atrocities before and hated himself for not being able to stop them. This day, though, his anger was greater than ever before … In Tiberius the city was teeming with Turkish soldiers who were abusing old men on their way to prayer. They taunted them by pulling at their earlocks and the fringes on their tallisim, which they wore under their black long coats. One old man who protested was thrown to the ground, kicked and left in the dust, hurt and bleeding.

  Dovid had to fight himself not to get both of them killed by going after the Turkish soldier. He literally willed himself to leave the scene, and rushed back to Zichron, where he went straightaway to see Aaron.

  Still full of anger, he repeated the atrocities he’d seen. He told Aaron that if nothing was done the dissident groups would take it on themselves to take direct action, and that would put the whole Yishuv in more danger than it already was.

  Aaron knew the logic of that He hated that Jews should become involved in espionage but at least it was better than Absalom’s suicidal notions of open revolt … “All right, call your meeting.” He paused and took a deep breath. “But you, Dovid, are going to have to assume the key position.”

  “I don’t mind, I welcome it. Besides, with your contacts with the Turks, it’s better you not risk yourself.”

  The word went out, and the next evening, in great secrecy, the key men from Hashomer, the Jaffa Group, the Gideonites and Athlit were contacted to meet in Aaron’s laboratory.

  Dovid stood looking over the group. “Thank you all for coming. In the past we’ve had our disagreements, but now we must bury them for the survival of our people. You know that what we are about to do is dangerous. To underestimate it would be foolhardy and dishonest. You must consider that you will be an enemy of the country, and if caught, you will be hanged. Those of you who have families should consider what that would mean to their safety. If any of you are undecided about this, the time to back out is now.” He paused, allowing the men a brief time to think. But all were in agreement … their lives were in jeopardy in any event. Whatever the cost, drastic measures had to be taken.

  Dovid looked at Aaron who nodded in agreement, then Dovid went on. “It’s my belief that the kibbutzim as well as the Yishuv must know nothing about our activities, for their own good and ours. However, it’s a little different here in Zichron. The village obviously will be unaware of the activities that will take place, but key men working at Athlit should very gradually move their wives and children to a safer place. Any quick, mass relocation would cause suspicion … I now turn the meeting over to the assembly.”

  Each man began with his own plan.

  Yitzchak Lavinsky spoke for the Jaffa Group. “We could raise an army of three hundred men. Already trained and equipped with arms. Their mission would be to blow up Turkish installations—”

  “And that,” Herman Belkind boomed out, “would bring Turkish reprisals down on the whole Yishuv. As a Shomer my job is supposed to be to protect the Yishuv.”

  “So what do you want us to do, hire an army and fight the Turks in hand-to-hand combat?” Asher Meged of the Gideonites answered back quickly.

  Absalom stood. “As a matter of fact, that’s more along the lines that I was thinking. However, mine isn’t quite hand-to-hand combat. I suggest a joint operation with the British. Eventually they’ll have to move across the Sinai to take Palestine and Syria. If we Jews here help them, it could be done sooner. It would involve the Gideonites, the Jaffa Group and Hashomer. All would be mobilized at a strategic point and the coast would be seized and held. Our flag with the Star of David would be raised and war declared against the Ottoman Empire in the name of the Jewish State. Obviously this action would be coordinated with the arrival of the British fleet and the landing of their army. Backed with their power I feel this plan couldn’t fail … the enemy would be driven out as they were when they attacked the Suez. And the British would welcome this strategy since it would save them from coming north across the desert.”

  “And where on the coast could they possibly land, with the coast being patrolled as it is?” said Moses Bartov, the Shomer from Galilee.

  “That’s just the point,” Absalom said. “Palestine will never be in a better position. Jamal Pasha sent the main army to Gallipoli, left only a token force here. A limited British unit could cut the Turkish army in half. While we hold the shore the British could land. Athlit covers the coast behind the ruins of Caesarea. A few hundred of your men could secure our position against an army of the size now in Palestine—”

  “It’s not that simple,” Aaron said, “If you’ll forgive a military opinion from a scientist The shoals at Athlit and Caesarea would rule out landings, even the size you suggest The area between the shore and the landing area could never be taken. I just don’t think military action at this time would be advisable—”

  “So,” Moses Bartov said, “we sit back and let the Turks do to us what they did to the Armenians? The pogroms we lived through were nothing compared to that. We lost a few hundred villages. But we survived. Compared to these barbarians the Russians were civilized. They rounded up every Armenian. They took people, town by town, hamlet by hamlet, house by house. Just to kill a few, you think? No … to wipe out an entire people. Not a man, not a child was to be left. They took them into the forest, the women and children, and left them to die of starvation. They told the men they were going into the army”—Moses spat—“they took them to the army … to the army of death. They killed every one of them. The worst massacre in the history of the world, and nothing was done to stop it If nations can stand by and permit a whole people be slaughtered like sheep, then take my word, we are next. Jamal Pasha has made no secret that he wants only Turks wherever they rule, only their religion, only their language … Well, everyone has to die, but I’ll die like a man, not like an animal led to slaughter. I’ll die with a gun in my hand … I’m for Absalom’s plan.”

  Moses sat down and knew he had moved the group. Aaron was affected too, but he had to remind them that brave words wouldn’t solve the problem of rocks and shoals that prevented any large-scale landing.

  Aaron had put a damper on the men’s spirits … and then Dovid stood. “I’d like to ask you a question, Aaron, since you’re the one who moves the most freely among the offices of the Turkish government.”

  “Go ahead, Dovid.”

  “Well… after the Turkish counterattack on the Suez collapsed, the Turks were beaten and they retreated into Palestine. I waited for the British to take advantage, to make a forward thrust. They didn’t Why do you suppose that was?”

  Aaron knew very well the answer, and left it to Dovid to give it… “I’ll tell you, Aaron … the British lacked an intelligence network in Palestine and Syria to tell them the situation in the enemy camp. I believe they know now that they lost the advantage when they were on the offensive in the Suez because of lack of intelligence inside Palestine and Syria. They’d jump at the chance to work with us now. We know this country. They’ll accept our plan, Aaron. How can they afford not to? We can offer the British a network of surveillance—”

  Nachman Shamir broke in. “You mean spying … why don’t you call it by its right name, Dovid? And what are we supposed to do in the meantime? It could take months to gather the kind of information you’re talking about.”

  “You’re wrong. Every one of us has more information than the British have. The real problem is to keep things quiet enough so that we don’t put the Yishuv in danger. So, I’m not asking you to twiddle your thumbs. We can do two things at one time … while we’re gathering information, you can acquire all the arms that you can and train as many men as possible. Take my word, those of you who want to take up arms so badly will have your opportunity. When the time is right. The Turks will lose, and if the British accept this proposal it will be sooner than y
ou think.”

  In spite of his former reluctance to become involved, Aaron agreed. “Now, it’s very late and tomorrow night we meet again.”

  It was four in the morning when Dovid returned home. Quietly he let himself in, hoping not to awake Chavala, but she was waiting. She lit the kerosene lamp and looked closely at him. “What was so important? … Something is going on, I know it, I feel it. You don’t usually discuss wheat and oats till four in the morning.”

  How was he going to tell her? Not only that he was now a spy, but that he was also sending her away.

  “Dovid?”

  He paused for a moment, then, “It’s late, it’s a long story, I don’t know where to begin—”

  “With the truth.”

  He told her as little as possible, but how could he not tell her of his own involvement? He owed that to her. Telling her that she and the families of the other leaders would have to move out of Zichron was the most difficult job. Quietly, he tried to explain … there’d be no departure en masse, they’d leave on the pretext of visiting families, sickness—

  “Dovid … what you’re saying … You are going to be a spy for the British? My God … what happens if you are caught?”

  “You wouldn’t be involved, that’s why the less you and the others know, the better.”

  “Involved?” She laughed miserably. “I’m your wife … I am involved. Dovid, you must get out of this before it’s too late—”

  “I can’t do that, Chavala … You remember the night I came back from prison? You know how I acted when you questioned me … well, I couldn’t really tell you what I thought because I had no one to support it. Now I do … you said that night that we all fought in our own ways. Well, this is my way, the only way. I devised this plan. I ask you to try to understand how important—”

  “I don’t give a damn. I suppose I’m a selfish woman who can see no further than that her husband was spared … I’ve no big visions, Dovid. I just want you to live: I want you …I want to be with you … I won’t be sent away—”