The Critical Offer
Page 31
On a red stone plaque fixed in the concrete, were engraved in gold letters in Hebrew and Chinese:
Gershon Shalit
1959 – 2056
A warrior and a man of vision
They stood silently near the grave for several long seconds, bending down and pressing their palms together in the ancient Buddhist prayer posture.
The woman removed her dark glasses and pulled out of her bag a small bottle of jasmine-scented perfume. She opened its elegant stopper and sprinkled its content carefully over the fresh flowers.
The elderly Joe Yang addressed her in English with a heavy Mandarin accent, “I liked the guy, you know.”
Li-Lan wiped a tear from her left eye, looked from him to the grave and back again, and murmured to herself, “And I… I loved him.”
Acknowledgments
Many people helped me with information, suggestions, corrections, comments and insights - regarding the 2016 Hebrew version as well as the current English version of this book. For that I am very grateful.
Special thanks to Prof. Aron Shai, former rector of Tel Aviv University and founder of the Cathedra for Eastern Asian Studies, who revealed some of the secrets of China to me; to Prof. Arnon Sofer, whose lectures and publications supplied me with a solid factual base for my writing; to Dr. Yoel Rappel for his lectures and publications regarding the secrets of political Zionism; to the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) for reliable and accessible information about China today; to Wikipedia and Google for their multi-disciplinary information; to my cousin, the historian, Prof. Shimon Redlich, for his encouragement and suggestions; to General (Res.) Eitan Ben-Eliyahu, the former Israel Air Force Commander, for his salient criticisms and original ideas; to Colonel (Res.) Yiftach Spector, pilot and commander of two fighter squadrons in the war, innovator, author and artist, for his encouraging exactness; to the fighter pilot, writer and publicist, Eliezer Ya’ari, who instructed me on the dangers of shortcuts; to Dr. Lena Arnon, who assumed responsibility for preliminary evaluation and editing; to the painter, traveler, mountaineer and humanist, Wolfgang Manner, for his curiosity and challenging thinking; to Lt. Colonel (Res.) Giora Nadiv, warrior, writer and painter, for his supportive involvement; to Colonel (Res.) Yaakov Agassi, fighter pilot and wing commander in two wars, for his voluble impressions; to Colonel (Res.) Yehuda Shefer, military historian, for his exacting criticism and wide scholarship; to the artist, educator and friend Danny Livni for his broad, fundamental opinions; to Edna Shabtai, author, editor and linguist, for her wise, many-faceted advice; to Dr. Adi Yaron, “Doolittle” for dogs and humans, for his professional help; to my son Shay and his wife Shani for helping formulate the central ideas and for their educated criticism; to my brother Reuven Nir, engineer, inventor and writer, for his outside-the-box insights; and to Essi Gudes, my life partner, without whose patience and comments this book would never have seen the light of day.
And to all my friends who read the manuscripts in Hebrew and English, made corrections, commented and supplied insights both in writing and orally.
To editors Noah Mannheim and Yinon Kahtan of Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir publishing house, for the first Hebrew edition; To Benny Carmi of EbookPro; to the translators Tal Keren, Ronna Engelsberg and Kim Ben-Porat, and the entire team at eBookPro, who put their faith in me for this English edition.
Thank you all.
A note from the author
This book was originally written in Hebrew in 2016. It was published in Israel in January 2018 under the name “The Heat Will Break Tomorrow”.
I think it is even more relevant today and will continue to be so during the coming years.
Yitzhak Nir, Tel Aviv, 2019
WWW.YITZHAK-NIR.COM
Nir-Izhak@013.net