Trail of Blood Read online

  Lebanon was the first to come up in the presentations and a discussion dealing with the 1982 Lebanon War. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin had called it “Operation Peace for Galilee,” thus trying to justify the war, which had been offensive, rather than defensive. The team of Lebanon specialists did not hold back from criticizing the strategically short-sighted view exhibited by Minister of Defense Ariel (Arik) Sharon and Chief of Staff Rafael (Raful) Eitan in planning the war. The researchers identified important events such as Fatah leader Yasser Arafat’s decision to leave Lebanon for Tunisia along with the rest of the organization’s leadership, as well as the murder of Christian leader Bashir Gemayel. They also focused on the massacre conducted by the Christian Phalanges4 in the Palestinian refugee camps in Sabra and Shatila, as revenge for the murder of the Maronite leader. For Israel, the founding of the Shiite organization Hezbollah, which filled the vacuum formed in the area of southern Lebanon, continues as one of the most problematic results of this venture, according to the researchers. The massacre of Muslims in Sabra and Shatila by Christians for which Israel was blamed, continues to reverberate as the basis for the desire for revenge among many Lebanese and Muslims throughout the world. It is a catalyst that sparked much suicide bomber activity and the use of car bombs. The attacks on the American Embassy in Beirut and on the American Marine barracks, on French service members in Beirut, and on the IDF Headquarters in Sidon, all signaled where the wind was blowing. The researchers also noted the role played by Palestinian exiles who remained in the refugee camps in fomenting revenge tactics against Israel, as well as against the United States and France. One of the researchers particularly emphasized the emergence of the Lebanese Imad Mughniyeh as the military commander of the Hezbollah organization.

  ***

  “So what did you learn from the surveys, Gideon? Can you identify a direction worth focusing on?”

  “No, Yitzhak, I am sorry. The surveys included a broad variety of information, and the collection work was impressive, in fact global, in scope,” Gideon replied, feeling uncomfortable with his inability to meet Nahari’s expectations. “Every team of researchers has a very rich database of information fragments requiring them to utilize Big Data analytics in order to understand what is actually going on.”

  “And what about a correlation of information in the different areas?” Nahari interjected. “What do you think is the best way to test it? We need you, precisely due to your rich experience at analyzing the big picture.”

  “That’s a good point, Yitzhak, the use of Big Data analytics to process the information from the great variety of ‘trees’ may help us to get a picture of the ‘forest.’ Everything I have heard in the last few days supports my need to establish a point from which we can move forward. That initial point is apparently located in Lebanon, and in the Sabra and Shatila massacre. The next question is why I, in particular, would be the right person to lead the focus on the Lebanese arena.”

  “It is not the Lebanese arena, Gideon, it’s the entire Palestinian topic, primarily the Nakba5, which resulted in the establishment of refugee camps after the Israeli War of Independence. You grew up with them,” Nahari continued, looking directly at Gideon. “It’s not too hard for you to think back to the environment in which you grew up. It’s true that you were born on a kibbutz, but it’s no secret that you spent a major part of your time at the nearby Arab village.”

  Nahari noticed that this last part of his statement had caught Gideon by surprise.

  “Our role is to know, Gideon,” Nahari quickly stated. “Your emotional connection and understanding may be critical when it comes to the Palestinians. We’ll talk tomorrow after you sleep on the ideas that have been brought up here.”

  * * *

  3Tevel is the Mossad division in charge of intelligence and diplomatic relations. The division conducts ongoing working relationships with equivalent intelligence agencies in other countries. Such cooperation usually includes exchanging information and coordination intelligence collection. In addition, the division is charged with enhancing diplomatic relations with countries that do not have official diplomatic relations with Israel.

  4 The Lebanese Phalanges Party, also known as the Phalange, is a Christian Democratic political party in Lebanon, which played a major role in the Lebanese Civil War (1975–90). A militia affiliated with the Phalange carried out the massacre in Sabra and Shatila, which was presented as retaliation for the assassination of newly elected Lebanese president Bashir Gemayel.

  5‘Nakba’ is a term meaning “catastrophe” or “disaster”” in Arabic, and refers to the displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes following the 1948 Israeli War of Independence.

  Chapter 3

  The silence of the night was shattered by a volley of shots shattered. Gideon, who that night had been granted the unusual privilege of sleeping in his parents’ home rather than in the communal children’s house at Kibbutz Ein Yaakov, woke up in terror. He would learn the term “crack-bang” in the army, many years later, but this was precisely the sound that had caused him to shoot up from his bed. Out of the barrage of shots originating beyond the kibbutz fence and aimed at the homes of the kibbutz, three bullets penetrated his parents’ room, leaving three gaping craters in the bedroom wall. It was a period termed “The Incidents,” during which shots were fired at the Jewish settlements nearly every night. The armored posts along the kibbutz fence were occupied by sentries who stood guard in shifts, watching for possible danger. At the top of the hill overlooking the kibbutz was the Arab village of Al Khalad, which served as a source of attraction for the curious Gideon. The site was first settled thousands of years ago, and many early artifacts were found there and in the caves scattered at the bottom of the hills — items such as flint arrowheads and other ancient objects from the Middle Stone Age and the Neolithic Era. The carved flints ignited his imagination as he painted a mental picture of the ancient battlefield. The bows and arrows, serving for hunting but also for protection against predators both animal and human, seemed vivid, filling Gideon with an odd, inexplicable sensation of I’ve been there before. He did not know then that serious engagement with weapons systems would form a part of his future.

  The hill was open to all, serving as a meeting spot between the kibbutz children and the village children. Nimer was a curly-headed boy with eyes as black as coal and a wiry, muscular body. From the moment Gideon and Nimer met, they formed bonds of friendship and spent whole days together, exploring the secrets of the magical hill.

  One night, Motke, the kibbutz member standing guard at the post adjacent to the home of five-year-old Gideon’s parents, spotted a figure in an abaya6 crawling toward the fence. The guard opened fire with no hesitation, and the figure collapsed in its tracks. By the light of day, Gideon joined the group that went to check out the nocturnal interloper, finding a very different sort of enemy than expected: it was a giant hyena, which, even in death, remained threatening and terrifying. Gideon vividly remembered a story about a boy from a nearby moshav7 in the valley who was a sleepwalker. One night, much to his misfortune, he was bewitched by the distinctive laughter of the hyena, by which it lured the boy close and then devoured him. Motke dragged the hyena’s corpse to the kibbutz and skinned it in an impressively professional manner. After the hide was processed, the hyena’s fur was transferred to a position of honor on the floor of Motke’s house. Gideon was drawn to Motke’s home again and again; with every visit, he would have to face his primal fear of the monster as a chill ran down his spine. Nimer was the first to hear from Gideon the story of the captured hyena, and of the fear that Gideon did not hesitate to reveal to him.

  The village’s shepherds used the large, spacious caverns in the hill to shelter the cattle and livestock from the rain in the winter and from the blistering sun during the summer months. The floors of these caves were covered with the animals’ dung, which made
the caves unappealing to the young boys. It was the smaller caves, usually abandoned, that ignited the two boys’ imagination, and their visits to these sites included crawling through utter darkness. One morning, Gideon and Nimer discovered a cave whose opening was blocked with stones, in a way that made it nearly impossible to spot. Thick vines wound between the stones, and much hard work was required in order to clear the opening.

  Gideon and Nimer made their way through the dim space, careful and wary until their feet encountered a pile of dry bones. In the scant light filtering through the distant opening of the cave, they spotted two skulls staring at them with their hollow eye sockets. Based on their proportions, the bones and skulls appeared to belong to a man and a woman. In their unique mix of Hebrew and Arabic, the boys conducted a lively discussion about what had actually brought about the couple’s death. Was it robbery and murder? Had it been a love affair, causing the two to decide to end their own lives? Gideon and Nimer returned periodically to the mysterious cave; it seemed that no one had ever explored it in its entirety, nor touched the skulls.

  “Maybe you can ask your father, Gideon said to Nimer, about the cave and the bones? After all, he knows everything about what happened and still happens around here.”

  “My father is a smart man, and really does know a lot of things,” Nimer said. “I’ll ask him; he might have an explanation for the mystery.”

  When the boys met soon after that, Nimer reported, “My father was stunned when I told him about the cave and what’s inside it. I’ve never seen him so aggravated, and he raised his voice at me, which he has never done. He wouldn’t say a single word about it to me, and only instructed me to stop investigating and poking around, saying he could only tell me about it when I grow up…” The two boys continued to discuss the affair, remaining curious and somewhat frustrated.

  “We’ll have to wait a few years,” Gideon concluded. “Then maybe your father will agree to reveal the mystery to you. Promise me,” he added, “that when you know, you will tell me what really happened there.”

  The hill served as a habitat for a variety of animals and birds. Deer and gazelles peacefully grazed the green, juicy grass growing along the gentle slopes, constantly poised to leap away at the first sign of a threat; they would then disappear, agile and graceful. Jackals would hide in the caves during the day, setting out to stalk their prey come nighttime. When their empty stomach tormented them, they would break out in howls heard from one end of the valley to the other. Porcupines would emerge from the burrows where they dwelled during the day to gnaw on the roots of the juicy plants and return to their hidden lairs with dawn. The porcupines’ burrow could be spotted easily by the concentration of quills—the long spikes, speckled in black and white, which they would shed in the vicinity of their lair. Quick, bouncy rabbits would appear out of nowhere and disappear just as abruptly when their long ears discerned a threatening rustle. Partridges would saunter from one spot to the next, with a combination of fluttering wings and an incomparably rapid sprint.

  Nimer had a great variety of traps, which he called fah, adapted to hunt every type of animal. Typically, the snares contained a spring mechanism that needed to be cocked before the trap was set. When the animal stepped in the trap, attracted by the bait, the spring would be released, trapping the animal. Nimer was a whiz at setting up the traps and choosing the ideal location for them, and Gideon, charmed by his friend’s skilled hands, soon learned the secrets of the trade. Nimer was immersed in nature, with its flora and fauna, and his mastery of all things trap-related resulted from this knowledge.

  The two friends only experienced one failure, when a fox managed to outsmart the trap that Nimer had set not far from the Lovers’ Cave. As the boys watched from their hiding place, they saw the clever fox picking up a stalk of caper in its mouth and used it to spring the trap. Once the trap shut, it was easy for the fox to sate its hunger on the bait meat.

  Gideon hungrily consumed Nimer’s descriptions and explanations. He could not know how useful this lore would prove in the future when he was an officer in IDF’s Paratrooper Brigade. Nimer, too, had no idea how much his technical skills and creativity would find an utterly different venue in the distant future.

  Gideon visited the village of Al Khalad many times and had already grown used to the pungent smell of smoke constantly rising from the cooking ovens, the taboons. The material used by the village women to fuel the taboon was mostly dried cow dung. This dung, also known as ordure, was composed mostly of the remains of grass left behind after the four stomachs of the bovines had ingested all that could be gleaned from it. The village women would knead the fresh dung into flat loaves, which they would press against the external walls of the taboon to allow them to dry.

  Most of the village houses were simple, humble stone structures. The sheikh’s house, however, was an elegant two-story villa made of chiseled stone. The familial home of Salah Shakaki—known as ‘Abu-Nimer,’ Father of Nimer—also stood out in the level of construction and opulence that only a successful merchant could afford. The boys’ friendship was not sufficient to allow Gideon admittance into the house, and the father seemed to rule the home firmly.

  One day, Nimer arrived with news: his oldest sister Latifa was getting married, and he was allowed to invite Gideon, his Jewish friend, to the wedding celebration. In the afternoon hours, an unusual commotion was evident at the outskirts of the village; Nimer urged Gideon to arrive early and to watch the traditional horse race with him. Gideon was an expert on the topic of horses, as Ein Yaakov had an impressive horse stable whose reputation had spread throughout the region, which housed Arabian racing mares as well as studs. Every Saturday, Gideon and his friends would take up posts up close near the studs’ stable in order to be able to watch the “horse wedding” ceremony, which never ceased to charm Gideon. There were two thoroughbred Arabian mares in the stable, both as white as snow. Ofra was wild and mean, while Talila was relaxed and friendly, and both could gallop with speed and grace. Gideon enjoyed riding Talila, but the challenge presented by Ofra attracted him despite, or perhaps because of, the risk of falling from the cantering mare’s back. Only the most courageous Ein Yaakov boys rode the Arabian mares. The greatest daredevils would attempt to ride them perched only upon a thin cloth sheet, without a saddle.

  The horse race, which the villagers termed “the Fantasy,” was held on a flat plane in the northern, unsettled outskirts of Al Khalad. The riders donned festive garb, as did their horses, decorated with colorful tassels on their proud necks and their heads. Each of the riders was equipped with a gun, and Gideon, who remembered the shots fired into his parents’ house, could not help but wonder what additional purposes these guns served. But the guns were used solely to thrill the celebrants, and as the race approached its end, after seven laps around the racing field, the riders fired an enthusiastic volley of shots into the air while the horses galloped at full speed toward the finish line. From the age of three, Gideon had begun riding the kibbutz’s horses, and his skill and devotion to riding only grew with time; in the future would be known for his skill in reining in the wild Arabian mare Ofra’s outbursts. As such, Gideon deeply appreciated the riders’ professionalism and sensed the special connection that each rider shared with his horse. Gideon’s body transmitted a nearly uncontrollable desire to grab a horse, remove the rider from the saddle, and start galloping unrestrainedly far from the crowd of celebrants. Nimer, too, was a natural horseman, and knew how to lead the family’s racing mare in a confident, easy canter. The two boys would race against each other whenever Gideon was allowed to ride Ofra, each of them winning some of the time. Gideon could never have imagined that one day, his experience of caring for horses would lead to a breakthrough in a very different area.

  Afterward, without waiting for any particular signal, the attendees descended upon the giant serving bowls, scooping up rice with a hunk of mutton, shaping it into a ball, and tossing it quickly into
their mouth in order to move on to more and more rice-and-meat balls. “Just do exactly what everyone else is doing,” Nimer whispered to Gideon, demonstrating the technique of kneading the rice into a ball with enviable speed. Gideon hesitated briefly due to the admonitions he had received in the kibbutz against eating with his hands, but soon he began to fit right in with the other diners. He found the spicy rice with the coal-roasted mutton – so different from the food at the kibbutz – extremely delicious.

  The atmosphere in the giant tent set up in honor of the wedding was warm and joyous, and Gideon had no problems feeling right at home in the company of Nimer and his family. By long-established tradition, the meal was an event lasting three hours, but for Gideon, the time went by very quickly. Throughout the evening, the guests enjoyed tunes played upon double-barreled shepherd’s flutes. Gideon, who had already begun to play the flute, was fascinated. Music was not a field in which Nimer was fluent, but he enjoyed listening to his friend play. Laden with new experiences and a full stomach, Gideon said took leave of the celebrants and returned to his other world, the world of the kibbutz in which he had grown up, and a society of children that was very different.

  As time went on, the end of World War Two and the arrival in Israel of many Holocaust survivors caused great changes in the Middle East in general, and in the British Mandate in Palestine in particular. It did not take a prophet to sense the changing winds as the conflict between Jews and Arabs approached a boiling point. Gideon could no longer freely visit his friend Nimer at his village, but their friendship persisted. The cavern hill provided them with hiding spots where they could sit and exchange impressions and the experiences of teenaged boys. The cave in which they had found the two skeletons, the man and the woman, was their favorite spot. They called it “the Lovers’ Cave.”