by Uzi Eilam
The UN decision to divide Palestine between the two nations was received with exultant joy among the Jewish residents and with concern mingled with fear among the Arab public. The political climate was growing bleaker, and the two friends tensely followed the winding down of the British Mandate over Palestine, worriedly discussing the battles flaring up in many points in the land of Israel. These were no longer skirmishes over grazing areas or ownership over areas of fertile land. The clubs and slingshots were replaced by guns and hand grenades. The gunfire spread throughout the country, and traveling on the roads became hazardous. The village of Al Khalad was distant from major traffic routes, and its residents took care to stick to their own affairs, but it was obvious to Nimer that they were living on borrowed time, and that the fire would reach them, as well.
The two friends met in their cave once more, feeling that it might be the last time. No matter what happens, they told each other, we’ll keep this friendship alive.
The next morning, the entire village, with its livestock and cattle, horses and donkeys, embarked on an exodus of sorts on their way to the city of Jenin. War broke out immediately after David Ben Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, and armies from all the Arab states attacked the young country. Gideon thought the evacuation of the village had been timely, and might have saved many lives, but his heart was heavy due to the exile forced upon his friend and his family.
Gideon could not forget the cave with the pair of skeletons, and he wondered if Nimer’s father would remember to reveal the secret to his son. He also did not know whether he would ever get the chance to see his friend again. The events of the long, brutal war kept thoughts of his friend Nimer at bay, but when he was on his own, he returned again and again to the wondrous hours they had spent together. He thought of that last meeting when they promised each other to meet once more when the battles were over, and a spasm of sadness shot through his heart.
***
Gideon continued to sit in the office, where the silence seemed deafening. He did not shy away from clinging to his childhood memories, or from the empathy he felt for the Palestinian refugees. However, neither could he disengage from the disaster his family had experienced when his father was killed in a terror attack carried out by Arabs not long after the State of Israel was established. It had been a painful blow for him as a young boy and for his family, an experience that was central in shaping his path in life. Losing his father propelled him to live his life in the world at large, rather than within the confines of the kibbutz. The murderous attack further spurred Gideon into volunteering to serve in the Paratrooper Brigade, IDF’s elite unit, which fought terrorists bravely and courageously and to climb the ranks of command there.
Before leaving the office, Gideon already knew what he would tell Nahari at their meeting the next day.
* * *
6A loose outer cloak worn in some Arab cultures.
7A moshav is a cooperative community of individual agricultural farms.
Chapter 4
Gideon found Nahari’s bureau immersed in a different sort of atmosphere. People were rushing about, and the office manager had to ask Gideon to wait until Nahari was free. Gideon’s experience told him that an important intelligence alert had come in, and that the entire commotion was focused on verifying or disproving it. As he waited, he mentally surveyed what he wanted to say to Nahari one last time. The main message he had decided to convey during the previous evening was acknowledging the importance of the Palestinian refugees’ feelings of discrimination, and that the city of Beirut was only the beginning of a much larger story. Gideon decided to present Nahari with what he had learned in his meetings with the research teams focused on the countries in the region: Syria, Iraq, Iran and distant Pakistan.
“North Korea is about to conduct an underground nuclear test, the largest since it began conducting testing,” Nahari updated him. “American intel indicates they intend to detonate a nuclear device that will reach an intensity of many dozen kilotons…”
“To what extent does this pertain to us? After all, they’ve already conducted experiments at lower intensities. Isn’t this the United States’ problem? Or Japan’s? Or primarily South Korea’s?”
“The US is on high alert, and is deploying all its counterintelligence means. They’re keeping us posted. Items of information are emerging linking Iranian teams to North Korea’s nuclear activity. The Americans have uncovered immense sums being transferred from Iran to North Korea. So far, this fact hasn’t gone beyond the American security agencies. We believe that neither the Russians nor the Chinese are aware yet of the information.”
“So now we have a new top priority? North Korea?” Gideon half-asked, half-determined. “Does this mean I am free to go back to my own affairs?”
“The prime minister and the minister of defense have concluded that this is a top national priority primarily due to the Iranian connection. We’re establishing an inter-agency team to deal with collecting information and recommend a possible Israeli contribution on the topic. Naturally, it has to be done in full coordination with American intelligence agencies. The team is already active, and I’ve asked them to keep you up to date on their findings. It’s still too early to determine,” Nahari continued in his familiar sharp intonation, “but I have a feeling it’s all connected. I expect you to examine all the data we already have and anything collected in the future, and to suggest some insights.”
***
Gideon entered the small room allocated to him in Nahari’s bureau. He contemplated the ever-increasing piles of documents on the desk and the files in the computer placed at his disposal (which he took care not to connect to any external network) and wondered whether he was capable of processing such a large amount of information. A thundering staccato knock on the door brought him back to reality, and to the head of Nahari’s Research Department, who walked into the office.
“Good morning, Gideon. I see you do not lack for food for thought and study. Nahari and I liked your idea linking the events in Beirut as a possible cause for future terrorist attacks. We witnessed the beginning of suicide bomber activity, solo or in conjunction with car bombs, in Lebanon, with the end of the First Lebanon War, in 1982.”
“That’s true, but following Nahari’s advice, I’ve gone back to a much earlier phase in our relationship with the Palestinians…”
“Meaning?”
“I’m talking about the Israeli War of Independence and the establishment of refugee camps in the West Bank, in Syria and Lebanon,” Gideon quickly clarified. “The Nakba, as the Palestinians call it, is the prominent national disaster that lives on in the memory of the longtime exiles and is passed on as to following generations. The desire to return to the homes they left behind in Israel is shared by Palestinians in all the refugee camps, regardless of age, financial or social status. We have to understand Palestinian motivations and their feelings regarding the Nakba, which lies at the root of their aspirations.”
“That’s true in general, but at least in the case of Jordan, many of the refugees were integrated into society, and became citizens with equal rights. However,” the head of the department added immediately, “there are still refugee camps in the West Bank that exist to this day. The Palestinians lived as refugees under Jordanian rule, and continue to be refugees under our rule.”
“We remember Yasser Arafat’s honeymoon in Jordan, where he received the full support of the Jordanian Armed Forces. It ended when King Hussein realized that the PLO8 was starting to threaten his regime. I was sitting with my reserve forces troop in the Jordan Valley during the month of Black September9, and I clearly remember the results of Hussein’s war against Arafat. It would be impossible to forget the sight of the Palestinians, PLO members, swimming across the Jordan River to Israel and turning themselves in with their hands in the air. As you know, Arafat himself found refuge in Le
banon, where he rebuilt his organization.”
“As we all know,” the head of the department noted, “the First Lebanon War caused Arafat, along with the rest of the PLO’s leadership, to leave Lebanon for Tunisia. For the residents of the refugee camps, including the ones in the Beirut suburbs of Sabra and Shatila, conditions remained just as they had been before Arafat settled in Lebanon.”
“That’s correct, but the massacre conducted by the Christian Phalanges in those Palestinian refugee camps resulted in a significant turning point, and mainly in the founding of the Hezbollah organization…”
“Very true,” the head of the department hurried to concur. “And we witnessed the major suicide bombing operations targeting the French forces, the American Marines units, and IDF forces in Lebanon.”
“So how is that related to current events? What’s the connection to the despicable attack on Kiryat Shmona, for which no one has yet claimed responsibility? And how does it relate to what I just heard about from Yitzhak Nahari— about the nuclear test that North Korea is about to carry out?”
“We still don’t know exactly what’s going on there. The Americans are claiming that Iran is involved, which raises the concern that this will provide Iran with a way to circumvent its commitments in the nuclear agreement with the six superpowers…”
Gideon knew that if he could only recruit Dan to help him employ Big Data analytics to sort through the information, he could make speedier progress. But interrupting Dan’s honeymoon was a last resort, and Gideon didn’t want to drag the young couple into the dilemmas that were tormenting him.
* * *
8The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded in 1964. Its stated goal is the liberation of Palestine through armed struggle, with much of its violence aimed at Israeli civilians.
9Black September was a conflict fought in Jordan between the Jordanian Armed Forces, under the leadership of King Hussein, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, primarily between September 16 and 27, 1970.
Chapter 5
Plenty of activity was evident in Punggye-Ri Test Site in the northern region of North Korea. Hundreds of soldiers had been stationed in nearby junctions and in the entrance to the area of the massive structures housing the Technological Projects Administration. Everyone understood that something unusual was about to take place, while only a handful of people knew the details. General Dr. Lee Hong Jik, the head of Technological Projects, was standing, tense and vigilant, at the entrance to the building where the nuclear test control room was located, for the arrival of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. The general maintained a confident, calm outer façade, but he knew the results of the test were crucial to his own fate and to North Korea’s status in the world.
The general evoked great fear in his employees; more than one of them had been sent to a detention camp due to some slight error in his performance. General Lee had earned his status and reputation during the reign of the father of the current Supreme Leader. General Dr. Lee’s greatest achievement was his successful development of long-range missiles in the early days of his career working for the Technological Projects Administration. The knowledge base for this technology had originated in the Soviet Union many years previously, but General Dr. Lee had been responsible for a major upgrade in quality, which had brought about substantial sales of missiles to many countries generating massive income to the State. Few people knew about the part played by a mysterious scientist who had arrived via Iran, who was the true source of the technological breakthrough on which General Dr. Lee had built his career.
Behind a glass wall in the control room, an exclusive audience of lucky invitees had the supreme honor of observing the scientists, sitting across from their computer screens and tracking the course of the test’s countdown. Three of them, clearly not Korean, sat in the front row, listening to English-language explanations delivered by their North Korean escort, Dr. Soon Mei. A pretty young woman, her black hair severely pulled back, Dr. Soon Mei was a graduate of North Korean and Chinese universities and fluent in many languages. She was also the daughter of an esteemed family possessing elevated status within the country’s leadership and was in charge of the department tasked with hosting foreign delegations.
Among the three foreigners, Dr. Samir Nuri was the one asking numerous questions, some of which she could not answer. The doctor had dark, curly hair with a few strands of silver, a high forehead and piercing blue eyes, and impressed Dr. Soon Mei with his curiosity and alertness. The other two guests allowed Samir Nuri to lead the conversation, which had drifted into technological minutiae. Dr. Nuri’s questions focused on the physical dimensions of the nuclear device to be activated in the test and on the status of the development of long-range warheads. From Dr. Soon Mei’s detailed briefing, she knew that Dr. Nuri was the head of the Iranian delegation, as well as about his past contribution to improving the country’s strategic missiles. In addition to the regular role of taking care of the Supreme Leader’s guests, General Kim Solji, head of security services, had also tasked her with forging a connection with Nuri and uncovering any hidden intentions that had not come up during the official meetings.
Dr. Soon Mei was familiar with the regime’s procedures and knew how quickly she might topple from the glittering peak she currently occupied down to rock bottom, the “re-education” camps, if she did not provide the expected results.
“You ask good questions, Dr. Nuri,” Soon Mei responded to the barrage of queries. “It would be best if you brought them up in the meeting scheduled for the three of you tomorrow with General Dr. Lee Hong Jik. It’s true that I’ve acquired some technological knowledge in my graduate studies, but I don’t claim to have the technological expertise of our development scientists.”
“That’s fine,” Samir Nuri replied. “We’ll wait till our meeting with the general, whom I’ve had the privilege of meeting before. He impressed me as a talented, experienced rocket scientist, and now the only thing left is to see how he fares with this nuclear test that we’re curiously awaiting.”
“We’re all tense,” Soon Mei whispered. “Our Supreme Leader will arrive soon, and therefore, it’s obvious that the countdown is almost over. I hope the trial will succeed, and that it will impress you as well. We know that it was thanks to you that a technological problem holding up the entire development process was solved. Your advice expedited the timeline of the whole project, thus saving us hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“Ahh… that’s the type of conduct that should exist between allied countries,” one of the two other Iranian scientists chimed in. “And we intend to continue enhancing our relationship.”
Suddenly, all the scientists facing their control screens leaped up to stand tautly at attention. The group of spectators on the other side of the glass partition also rose to their feet. Kim Jong-un’s entry into the control room had an electrifying effect on everyone, and Nimer had already heard about the fates of those who had not been quick enough to pay their respects to the leader. A royal throne adorned with gold embroidery stood at the center of the control systems, and the leader sat down in it after greeting all the attendees with a wave of his hand. A tense silence descended upon the room, while the large screen displayed the digits gradually counting down as the time of the explosion approached.
Distant thunder was heard, and the control room shifted right and left sharply. The visitors’ water glasses shattered on the floor, and empty chairs skittered back and forth. Nuri examined the reactions of the scientists at their control screens, fascinated. He was not troubled by the earthquake, but rather by the tension on the faces of the people, which soon transformed into smiles of relief. The “spontaneous” applause began only after the Supreme Leader, prompted by General Lee, rose to his feet and began clapping.
“Thank you, General Lee,” the leader said. “Can we sum this up as a success?”
“Let me know as soon as possible, and please fashion a statement that you recommend releasing,” the leader decreed as he left the control room accompanied by the general and his security detail, quickly passing by the line of scientists waiting with their heads bowed to shake the leader’s hand.
“This is a great day for North Korea,” Dr. Soon Mei addressed the three guests. “I’ll escort you back to your hotel. We all deserve some rest after such an impressive achievement. I’ve scheduled you a meeting with General Dr. Lee tomorrow at ten a.m. He will furnish details to you about the results of the test.”
“We’ll be happy to meet the general and hear what he has to say,” Nuri replied. “Based on my acquaintance with the man, he’s worth listening to.”
“Indeed so, Dr. Nuri, and I also have a message for you from the general. He’ll want to hear from you about a certain topic you’ve dealt with in the past.”
“I’m honored. But I don’t know what he’s referring to and what I should prepare.”
“I suggest we meet at my hospitality suite at the hotel. When we arrive there this afternoon, I’ll update you on what I know.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” confirmed Dr. Nuri, who did not bother to hide the fact that he had been intrigued by and attracted to the young woman ever since their first meeting. He was especially moved by one of Dr. Soon Mei’s unconscious gestures. Like his wife Laila, the young Korean woman had a habit of smoothing her coal-black hair with her left hand when hesitating before replying to a question that sounded difficult.