THE SEA OF GALILEE, ISRAEL
April 25, 1967
When Robyn Wilson had warned him on the phone that her daughter Alice was a stubborn child, Peter had to chuckle: she’s no child. That girl is all woman, and parents are always the last to see it. He wondered if he’d be the same with Diana in ten years. That made him miss the operative word—stubborn.
He had called Alice’s mother to give her a progress report on her daughter but also to hint that peaceful Israel could be approaching more turbulent times. He had wondered whether she would feel more comfortable if Alice returned home earlier than planned.
“Oh, thank you for letting us know, but we got a letter from Alice yesterday saying how quiet it is there and how much she enjoys working on the kibbutz. She’s been to the Sea of Galilee and even Capernaum where St. Peter lived and Jesus preached. She’s met a nice boy too so, knowing her, nothing will move her. Have you met him? His name is Ido.”
“Yes, he’s my nephew.”
“Oh, that’s nice, then.”
“He’s a soldier.”
“A soldier?” Her voice wilted.
“An officer.”
“Oh. Well, I’m sure that’s fine, then.”
Sure, Peter thought, she’s in safe hands, like the sun rises in the west. A pretty seventeen-year-old girl with a handsome twenty-one-year-old army captain. He had better speak to Ido fast.
Amikam, his Office driver, had been at the wheel two hours when the Beit Shean Road winding east dropped steeply through hairpin bends to join the Jordan valley road to Tiberias. They followed the river that formed the Jordanian border, past the green fields and grazing pastures of Kibbutz Ashdot Yaacov where Alice was working. No time to stop yet though, that treat was for later, his meeting was in an hour at the northern end of the lake.
He leafed through his notes. Although Mossad’s brief was to operate against Israel’s enemies outside its borders, that blurred when those external enemies operated inside Israel. Some of the Palestinian infiltrators were disguised Syrian regular soldiers; worse, Moscow was pushing Syria to be more belligerent. Mossad believed Moscow was playing the long game. The more Syria confronted Israel, the more Syria would need the support of Russia. And what Russia most wanted was a dependent state in the Middle East, an Arab pawn in the Cold War.
When Israel’s French-made Dassault warplanes shot down the six Soviet MIGs flown by Syrian pilots it was a slap in the face of the communists. A victory of West over East. Moscow warned Jerusalem about “possible consequences” of more confrontations with Syria.
Which made it clearer than ever that if war erupted, Israel needed to strike first, or the Soviet-backed armies of Syria, Egypt, and possibly Jordan could overwhelm tiny Israel, which had only reluctant American support.
Israel’s dilemma was that America insisted it have a good reason, some Arab provocation, to strike first. That was what Peter needed to discuss with agents in the north, before a defense ministry briefing he was to give the next day in Tel Aviv with the head of Mossad, Meir Amit.
Amit wanted ammunition to prove that Israel could not afford to wait. So far, Peter didn’t have it. Nor did he understand why Amit wanted it: Did Israel want war, or did Israel want to avoid war?
If that was a tricky question, it was just a tease for his next mission that would require a much more delicate touch: to persuade a love-struck seventeen-year-old girl to go home, or at least to come back with him to Tel Aviv. For now he was more convinced than ever that Alice Wilson was in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the afternoon meetings guards had brought him a shackled Palestinian fighter. He had been captured inside Israel in an army ambush weeks earlier, and told interrogators that his final instructions before crossing into Israel had been given by a Syrian army officer and a Russian adviser.
The fuse was burning. Israel had to act.
He had to act quickly with Alice too. Half the terrorist attacks came through Jordan, the border of which was a few hundred yards from the fields of her kibbutz. His American ward was most definitely in harm’s way.
The only problem was she was in love, and she wasn’t too shy to say so. He discovered that when he tracked her down to her bare room in the volunteers’ quarters. There was little more than a table, the wooden chair he sat on, and the single bed where she lay studying Hebrew. She was delighted to see him but quickly added that Ido could come at any moment and if he did, she asked with a blush, would Peter mind leaving them alone for a while?
Yes, he would mind, definitely, but he was so taken aback by the girl’s brazenness that he could only say, “How often does Ido come here? After all, he’s in the army.” Maybe he should have a word with Ido’s commanding officer, get him confined to base.
“Not often, he can’t get away from his base. He said maybe he could come today.”
“You had a good drive up with him?”
“Yes. We took the bus.”
“How was that?”
“We held hands.” She giggled. Anything else? he wondered.
“I’m trying to learn the Hebrew alphabet, but it’s so hard. These letters are crazy, all squiggles and dots.” Alice rolled her eyes as she held up her exercise book. “I’m on letter daled. After a week I’m four letters into the alphabet. Pathetic! But I like working in the bananas. Look,” she said, flexing her biceps, “I’m a farmer now.”
He wondered how best to phrase his demand, though he knew it was doomed. “Alice, I know you like it here, but there have been so many terrorist attacks around here lately, and shells from Syria, there’s a buildup of military just in the last week, anything could happen, so I think, Alice, it would be better if you left here for a while and came back with me to Tel Aviv. Just for a bit, Alice. You can come back as soon as it’s quiet again.” His sad smile showed he felt for her, but regretfully there was no choice.
Her body drooped, her eyes reddened, her lips quivered. “I thought you just came to say hello.”
“I did. That too. But, also to bring you back to town. Just until it’s safe. I’m responsible for you, Alice, I promised your parents.” Such a pity, such a lovely, spirited girl. She looked so disappointed, but it was for her own good. She would understand.
“Well, I’m not coming, forget it. No way. Not a chance. I don’t care what you say. I love it here. And I love Ido. I won’t leave him. If all these families can stay here with their little children, I can stay here too. If it’s safe for them, it’s safe for me. I’m not coming. I’ll tell my parents myself.”
For an instant Peter felt like grabbing her by the arm and dragging her to the car. But with her set jaw, her wild eyes, and shaking her little fists, he suddenly saw who Alice reminded him of: Diana, at her most stubborn. That’s exactly what his wife would have said. He was facing a teenage Diana with an American accent. He wished he had known Diana when she was seventeen. He wished she hadn’t died so young, just thirty-four. Twice this girl’s age. He stared at Alice.
“What?” she said.
“I was just wondering what I’ll say to your mother.”
“Don’t say anything. Nothing has happened, don’t make an issue of something that may never happen.”
Wise words, he thought. Seventeen, going on thirty. Lucky Ido.
On cue, there was a light tap on the door, and in he walked, in olive fatigues. Ido’s face lit up in surprise. “Peter. Fantastic. What are you doing here?” He crossed the room in two steps and fell onto the bed next to Alice, went to take her hand but thought better of it.
Peter smiled. He didn’t miss a thing. “How’s the army?” he said.
Ido glanced briefly at Alice. “Fine. Quiet.”
Peter nodded. Good for Ido, no need to boast. At the briefing he had been told the name of the squad leader who had caught the terrorist and protected a wounded prisoner. It had filled him with pride in the new generation, though he hadn’t revealed that Ido was his nephew. Now he thought, Ido deserves this sweet girl. He’s a soldier, anything could happen, at any time. And frankly, she deserves him. He contemplated them for a moment. “I’m going to find a room,” Peter said, “I’ll stay over for the night. I leave early for Tel Aviv. Will you still be here in, say, an hour?” He’d give them that.
“No, I have to get right back. I just dropped by to see if Alice needed anything. Hebrew lessons, you know?”
“Yes, I know. Alice, what’s the fifth letter of the alphabet, what comes after daled?”
“Hey, I don’t know. I guess I’m about to find out.” She took Ido’s hand and winked at Peter.
He winked back, and wished he hadn’t. “I’ll be back in an hour,” he said, closing the door.
* * *
A lot can happen in an hour, but it didn’t. As they kissed, sitting back against the wall, Ido applied gentle pressure on Alice’s shoulders, until they were lying on the bed. He managed to open Alice’s shirt, his hands found her bra clasp, but she wriggled away. “Please don’t,” she whispered. He kissed her throat with open lips and darting tongue, making her shiver. “Just this,” he murmured, slipping his hand beneath her bra, cupping her firm warm breast and hard little nipple. “Don’t worry, just this,” he repeated as she settled against him, returning his kisses.
“I could stay like this forever,” Ido sighed in Alice’s ear, his warm breath tickling her so that she giggled and pulled away. “Me too,” she said, “but you’re tickling me. Look, feel this.” She raised her head and blew gently into his ear. “Mmm, good,” he said, sliding his fingers into the waistband of her jeans, excited by the firmness of her curves. She pulled his hand away. He probed for minutes, now at her side, now at the base of her spine, gaining an inch here, half an inch there, pressing against her on the lumpy single bed. “There’s something sticking into me,” she said, moving away.
“It isn’t me!” Ido shouted with a laugh.
“No, feel this, it’s a lump in the mattress, at night I have to arrange myself around it.”
“Let me,” Ido said, and punched and poked until the lump had gone, the clump of fiber now evenly distributed. “That’s better,” Alice laughed, spreading herself across the bed. “My hero, come here.”
“Oh, no,” he said sharply, looking at his watch. “I have to get back to base.” He adjusted his pants and tucked in his shirt. “I’m not really supposed to be away.”
“To be continued.”
“I can’t wait. I’ll come back soon.” Clasping her buttocks, he kissed her until they could barely breathe, and left.
But Ido did not see Alice again soon. That same night his brigade was ordered south, where army intelligence showed Egypt was building up its forces in the Sinai Peninsula.