The Jerusalem Assassin

by Avraham Azrieli

  “ I don’t believe it,” Lemmy said. “My father was sincere in his fanatical faith. What you’re saying is impossible. My father was a mole?”

  “ That’s exactly what he was. Still is. Elie had recruited many other moles. That’s his expertise. Look at you!”

  “No.” Lemmy stood up. “It can’t be. My father was a real tzadik. Elie told me that my father banished me, sat shivah in mourning for me, because I rejected Talmud-”

  “Elie told you? Elie lied to you! And to me! He broke our deal!”

  “What deal?”

  “In sixty-seven, I gave him Klaus’s bank ledger in exchange for him ordering your father to let you leave Neturay Karta and become a normal Israeli.” She bent over, as if about to be sick. “I made a deal with the devil. And I got my just reward. Hell! ”

  He helped her sit up. “I don’t understand.”

  Tanya sighed. “When Elie found me, he told me Abraham was alive in Jerusalem. I came to your apartment-”

  “ I remember that Sabbath.”

  “ Yes. It was on a Sabbath. I begged him to leave Neturay Karta, to shave his beard and payos, and return to me. It was nineteen sixty-seven, and we were still young, not even forty. We could still have a life together. But he refused. Your father was committed to his mission, feared that without him the sect would engage in fundamentalist violence. And he felt a duty to your mother and to you. I was devastated. And angry. So I-”

  “Seduced his son?”

  “It wasn’t a rational process,” Tanya said. “You looked exactly the way Abraham had looked back in nineteen forty-five. For me it was like going back in time, a chance to reunite with a young Abraham through you. I convinced myself I was doing you a favor, saving you from the ultra-Orthodox prison he had confined you to. And I succeeded! You saw the outside world and embraced it, and Elie got Klaus’s ledger and instructed Abraham to let you leave the sect.”

  “ Let me leave? He banished me in the synagogue, in front of the whole sect! They almost lynched me!”

  “ Your father had no choice but to publicly excommunicate you. It was necessary for his credibility in the sect. And you did fine, joining the army, becoming a healthy, happy Israeli paratrooper. I was so proud of you. But then-”

  “I died heroically?”

  “But then Elie played the same old trick!” She took his hands. “All those years, you were alive. I can’t believe it. How could you do this?”

  “ What choice did I have? Under my circumstances, Elie’s offer was enticing.”

  “ You’re right.” Tanya’s voice broke. “It’s my fault. I caused this to happen.”

  “Don’t blame yourself for my decision to serve-”

  “You were a pawn!” Tanya stood, her voice suddenly filled with anger. “The three of us-Abraham, me, and Elie-we each had our own designs on you, young Jerusalem Gerster. We each had our own selfish agenda, cloaked in good intentions, to guard little Lemmy against the other two.”

  “ But I made my own decision to read the books you gave me, to pursue you, to make love to you, to leave Neturay Karta-all were my choices! Mine alone!”

  “ Please, don’t yell.” She saw his anger and understood it. How could he accept that his life had been manipulated by three Holocaust survivors locked in a twisted triangle of love, hate, and misguided patriotism? How could he admit that he had paid so dearly for the sins of others?

  “I chose to join Elie, and I don’t regret it.”

  “ It wasn’t an informed choice. You were a naive adolescent. We played with your life. Your father intended to shelter you from reality, keep you in the sect, groom you to Talmudic stardom, but his selfish agenda was to install you as leader so he could become free from a life of lies. And me? I wanted to protect you from Neturay Karta’s fanatical ideology, to set you free, to save you from a future of ignorance and enslavement to the tyranny of religious oppression, but my selfish agenda was to lure you into my orbit, to possess you because I couldn’t have your father. And Elie’s stated goal was to give you an opportunity to serve the nation heroically in a role that required a German-looking, bright youth to be planted as a mole in Switzerland, to chase the biggest Nazi loot, which in turn would be used for his grand scheme of Counter Final Solution. But Elie could have recruited someone else. His selfish motivation was to punish Abraham and me for loving each other, to separate us forever by guilt and grief, and he succeeded. I should have warned you about Elie. I can see it now so clearly, how he manipulated all of us!”

  “I don’t think you understand how incredible Elie’s plan is. I’ve dedicated my life to its success, and we are very close to launching it.”

  “Nonsense. Elie is finished.”

  “Don’t underestimate him again.”

  “That devil! He’s a fanatic, dedicated to revenge, not to healing and building. Do you really believe anti-Semitism could be eradicated through mass murder?”

  “Who’s talking about mass murder? Our network of agents will conduct surgical assassinations of individuals-not only active terrorists and their sponsors, but anyone who perpetuates anti-Jew hatred, who instigates hostility toward Israel, who is like a cancerous tumor that would metastasize and spread unless excised with a slash of our scalpel. Imagine how history would have turned out if Hitler was eliminated in nineteen thirty-three? Or if Pope Urban II was dispatched to meet his savior before he called up the first crusade? Or if Ferdinand and Isabella died before they expelled the Jews from Spain? Or if the Roman emperor-”

  “So you’ll kill politicians and clergy. How about academics? Writers? Filmmakers? Cartoonists?”

  “Their venom could be as deadly as an explosive belt. Eliminating them will save many Jewish lives. It’s justifiable self-defense.”

  “Arbitrary execution without judicial process? That’s murder!”

  “We’ll set up our own secret judicial process. Elie is right. The goal justifies all means. The very fate of the Jewish people is at stake.” Lemmy shrugged. “Our personal feelings and sacrifices are irrelevant.”

  Tanya dropped his hands as if they had become too hot. “Then you too are a fanatic!”

  *

  “ Excuse me.” Elie Weiss removed the plastic oxygen mask from his face. “What day is it?” He knew the answer, but the young guard seemed gullible enough to play the role Elie had planned for him.

  “It’s Friday.” He pointed at the window, where the sun was setting. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

  “Friday?” Elie looked at the glowing view. “Then Sabbath will begin soon.”

  The guard nodded. Outside the door, the nurses were chattering at their station, and patients’ relatives paced up and down the corridor. Elie had his own ICU room. A closed-circuit camera was monitored outside his door by two guards in three shifts of eight hours. Elie had engaged them in casual conversations, building rapport. They were not Shin Bet agents but students, who worked part-time in security after having finished their mandatory IDF service in combat units. They didn’t know who he was, and their instructions were to keep him in isolation. He was not allowed to use the phone, and only medical personnel entered his room.

  “The holy Sabbath.” He pressed a button, and the bed rose to a sitting position. “My last Sabbath.”

  The guard’s blushing discomfort was exactly what Elie expected.

  “ A person can feel the end. Do you know?”

  The guard looked away. “Well, I’ll be outside.”

  “Is there a synagogue here?” He knew the answer. Hadassah Hospital had a chapel on the lobby level, where a rabbi led services three times a day. “I want to pray before I die.”

  “We’re not supposed to-”

  “You can see.” Elie tried to smile. “I can’t run away.”

  The guard stuck his head out the door and exchanged a few words with his partner. They helped Elie out of bed and into a wheelchair. A short elevator ride took them down to the lobby, where they followed a sign to the synagogue.

  It w
as a windowless room with a modest wooden ark. About fifteen men, most of them in hospital gowns, rocked over prayer books. The rabbi was a youngish man with a short beard and glasses. He read each portion of the evening service in a thin, pleading voice.

  Once Elie’s wheelchair was secured at the back of the room, one of the guards fetched a yarmulke and put it on Elie’s head. The other gave him a prayer book. They went to the door and stood just outside, engaged in a hushed conversation.

  When the service reached a quiet part, with each man murmuring the prayers, Elie caught the rabbi’s eye. He came over and shook Elie’s hand. “May God bless you with a full and complete recovery.”

  “I’m dying,” Elie said, leaning forward, his lips close by the rabbi’s ear. “I must get my own rabbi’s blessing, but they’re not letting me call him.”

  The rabbi glanced at the two guards. “I’m sorry, but this is not something I can help-”

  “Rabbi Abraham Gerster of Neturay Karta. Have you heard of him?”

  The rabbi’s eyes widened. “Who hasn’t?”

  “Tomorrow night,” Elie said, his voice masked by the praying men around them, “after the Sabbath, go there and give him this note.” He pressed a piece of paper into the rabbi’s hand. “God will reward you for helping a dying Jew.”

  *

  The bench they were sitting on faced the low wall. As Lemmy stood up, his eye caught a movement among the trees by the giant chess board. “How many people did you bring?”

  “ None.”

  “ The Israeli Mossad sends a woman alone on a mission?”

  “ I expected a business meeting with a nervous banker,” Tanya said, “not a shootout.” She started to turn around.

  “ Don’t look.” He pretended to tie his shoe. “Perhaps your superiors sent a backup team?”

  “ I run all Mossad activities in Europe.”

  He was impressed. “Could your subordinates have followed to watch your back?”

  “ Not without my knowledge.”

  “There’s a man in a beige coat over there.”

  “Maybe he’s a local getting some fresh air?”

  “In this weather? Crouching behind a tree? I don’t think so.” Lemmy took her arm. “Are you armed?”

  “No. I flew commercial from Tel Aviv this morning.” She leaned against him as they strolled toward the chess boards and the only exit. “How many bullets do you have left?”

  “ Enough for another tragic mistake. Could it be a Shin Bet team?”

  “ No way. Only Mossad is allowed to operate outside Israel, and I’d know if another team was here.”

  “ Elie operates outside Israel.”

  “ SOD is independent. It’s not a government agency. And Elie knows better than to interfere with Mossad.” Tanya bent down, pretending to fix her boot. “Could be a remnant of Abu Yusef’s group. Perhaps they followed you.”

  “ Impossible.”

  “ Didn’t I manage to find you? The Arabs are no less sophisticated these days, and the money transfer to Senlis came from your bank with your signature.”

  They kept strolling. A chess board now separated them from the hiding man. The Mauser was ready in Lemmy’s hand. “Get down!”

  Tanya dropped, and Lemmy broke into a sprint. His first bullet hit the tree trunk, and the target leaped a short distance, hiding behind another tree, yelling something. Lemmy shot again, the pop of the silencer followed by the knock of his bullet on the side of the trunk and the splash of bark pieces. The target yelled again, still behind the same tree, coattail fluttering in the wind.

  Lemmy closed in.

  His next shot must have grazed the target, who lost his nerve and ran. Lemmy stopped, aimed carefully at the next gap between the trees, estimated the time to catch the target as he passed, and released the shot.

  The target screamed and fell.

  Holding the Mauser steady, Lemmy advanced, aiming at the head.

  “ Al tirah, ” the target yelled in Hebrew. “Don’t shoot!”

  Lemmy kept the Mauser aimed, finger on the trigger. “Are you Israeli?”

  “ Yes!” The man was short and bald and wore eyeglasses. “ Ai yai yai! I’m wounded!”

  “ What Torah chapter did you read for your Bar Mitzvah?”

  “ Ahhh! My leg!”

  “ Answer me if you want to live.”

  “ I don’t remember! The story of the golden calf!”

  “ What happened to Korach and his men?”

  “ Shit! You’re meshugah! ” He moaned and curled on the ground, blood pooling under his leg. “They died, okay?”

  “ How?”

  “ The ground swallowed them! It should swallow you too!”

  Lemmy reached under the man’s coat, exposing a shoulder holster. He pulled out the gun, a standard Beretta, and tossed it far into the trees. “Why didn’t you shoot back?”

  Tanya reached them. “Identify yourself!”

  The man shifted to look at her, causing his shattered leg to twist. “ Ahhh! ”

  “ He speaks Hebrew,” Lemmy said. “Seems like your Mossad colleagues don’t trust you.”

  “ Plenty of Arabs speak Hebrew,” she said. “Who do you work for? Abu Yusef?”

  He groaned in pain.

  “ Okay,” Lemmy said. “I’ll shoot his other leg.”

  “ No! My name’s Tuvia Berr. Help me!”

  Surveying the area, Lemmy said, “I don’t see anyone else.”

  “ He must be one of Abu Yusef’s-learned Hebrew in a refugee camp.”

  “ Right.” Aiming the Mauser at the man’s face, Lemmy said, “Say hello to Allah.”

  “ No!”

  “ Tell us who you are,” Tanya said, “and we’ll get you medical help.”

  Rising halfway to a sitting position, the man uttered hoarsely, “Shin Bet.”

  “ Impossible.” Tanya patted the man’s pockets, finding nothing. “You’re lying.”

  “ If you’re Shin Bet,” Lemmy said, “then tell us who to call for help.”

  The man recited a phone number.

  “ A Paris number?” Lemmy committed the digits to memory. “We’ll try it, but if you’re lying-”

  “ Make the call!” The man fell back, panting. “Ask for Number One.”

  Lemmy removed the man’s belt and tied a makeshift tourniquet around the leg wound. He buttoned up the coat to keep the man warm. “By the way, which one of us were you following?”

  The man pointed at Tanya.

  They left him and hurried down the cobblestone street.

  “ He’s lying,” she said. “Shin Bet is limited to domestic security.”

  “ Maybe they consider you a security risk?”

  “ Domestic security. It means within Israel’s borders, which doesn’t include Zurich, Switzerland.”

  “ Not yet. And who’s Number One?”

  “ Can’t be the chief of Mossad. He’s in Turkey. We spoke last night. This is a crucial time for Israel. We need support in each country for the Oslo Accords. We’re enlisting various secret services to help us prevent attacks on Jewish targets. A couple of extravagant terrorist attacks could sway the Israeli public against Rabin and his peace policies.”

  “ Could this Number One be the chief of Shin Bet?”

  “ In Europe? No way. And to put a tail on me? Only the prime minister has the authority to order an investigation of someone at my rank, and then only Mossad’s own internal affairs division could do it, not Shin Bet.”

  “ Maybe Rabin made an exception?”

  “ Send Shin Bet agents outside Israel? They’d be operating outside their immunity from criminal prosecution, outside their chain of command, and outside the law. It could be a cause for dismissal, possibly criminal indictment. That’s the whole point of separating the secret services!”

  “ We’ll soon find out.” At a pay phone on the corner of Bahnhofstrasse, Lemmy inserted a phone card into the slot, punched in the number, and held the receiver near his ear so that Tanya
could listen in.

  “ Hello?” It was a male voice.

  “ Tuvia Berr,” Lemmy said, trying his best to imitate the injured man, “calling for Number One.”

  “ This is Number One. Did you lose her?”

  “ The opposite.”

  “ She’s with you?”

  “ Aha.”

  There was brief silence on the other line. “Take her to your hotel room. Use all means to extract everything she knows about Weiss. And keep her locked up until I personally give you new orders. Understood?”

  “ Okay.” Lemmy hung up. “Recognize the voice?”

  She nodded, her lips pressed together until they bleached.

  “ Chief of the Shin Bet?”

  Another nod.

  Lemmy glanced surreptitiously in both directions, detecting no irregular activity on the busy street. He called the police, informed the dispatcher about a wounded man in Lindenhof Park, and hung up before they asked any questions.

  “ They’ve gone rogue!” Tanya grabbed the receiver and punched in a series of numbers. “I must alert my team in Paris.” She waited, but no one answered.

  *

  The prayers concluded with the singing of Adon Olam, praising the Master of the Universe for His creation, His oneness, and His mercy. Rabbi Abraham Gerster kept his eyes on the prayer book while the men of Neturay Karta departed the synagogue. When they were all gone, Benjamin came over and greeted him, “Sabbath Shalom, Rabbi.”

  “Sabbath Shalom, Benjamin. Why don’t you send your boys ahead, so the two of us can talk?”

  Benjamin complied, and Rabbi Gerster held his arm as they walked into the chilly night. The alleys were empty, lit by the glow from the windows of the apartments overhead, where families were gathering for the Friday night meal. Muffled voices came through, singing, “Shalom aleichem, malachey ha’sharet. Welcome, angels of peace, angels of heaven.”

  “You want to ask me about the woman journalist,” Rabbi Gerster said, “but you hold back. A leader must not be timid.”