The Shield: a novel (42 page)

Am
os tried to persuade him that Soviet dominance would be unlikely. In the end he presented his plan, which he hadn’t yet disclosed to anyone. After a heated discussion the Foreign Minister agreed that, with some modifications, it was a good plan.

Next they discussed the Kuwait situation.
Amos wanted to pressure the British government immediately while the Foreign Minister accepted Mizrahi’s position that they should wait. They briefly discussed the issue and Amos agreed that it was probably a good idea to wait a bit.

The next issue
on the agenda was somewhat of a surprise for the Foreign Minister. The Minister for Internal Security joined them, as well as the head of the General Security Service.

“
Nathan,” the Prime Minister asked, “what is your opinion of the Peace Now demonstrations?”

“
I think they are stupid, but I always thought they were. They think that if we cancel the decision to execute murderers when a new terror act is perpetrated the murderers will just go home? For some reason these idiots always blame us for everything. It is always the ‘poor, oppressed’ Palestinians.”

“
I am glad that you agree with me on this, but we have a larger problem here. The last demonstration at Rabin square in Tel-Aviv had more than thirty thousand participants, and the number of their supporters is growing. Now the Arab parties and the leftist peaceniks in the Knesset are organizing for even larger demonstrations.

The Foreign Minister nodded: “I’ve even gotten a couple of telephone calls from the Russian and
American ambassadors. Since they are, by our own definition, private persons, they may decide to support this movement. I don’t like it at all.”

Am
os Nir looked at his colleagues. “We may have a surprise for these guys.” He nodded to the Security Services man.

“
As you know, we have good sources in the Palestinian organizations,” the head of the GSS stated. “One of these alerted us to unusual activity by the Palestinian Authority a while ago. We pinned a micro transmitter on Muhammad al Husseini, the Hamas guy from Jenin, when he was on his way to meet with the chairman of the Palestinian authority. This is what we recorded…” He started a small tape recorder and played back the conversation between Muhammad and Dr. Mazen coordinating the operation to contact the Mufti. Everybody in the room, except for the Foreign Minister, had enough Arabic to understand the gist of the conversation. The Foreign Minister waited for a translation.

“
About a month later, there was a meeting of all the Palestinian leaders in Mazen’s office. They swept the office for bugs but didn’t think of long distance laser eavesdropping.”

“
What is that?” the Foreign Minister asked.

“
Oh, it’s a simple device – You point a laser beam at a surface that vibrates when a sound is made, like a window pane, and, with proper calibration, can hear everything said in the room.

“
But this wasn’t the only means we used. One of the participants carried a bug in his clothing.” He played back a recording of the meeting.

“
After everybody left,” The GSS man continued, “Mazen made several telephone calls.”

Am
os Nir took over at this point: “I think that if we disclose the whole thing to the public, we can stop the protests for good.”

“
I wish it was so simple,” the head of the GSS smiled a sad smile. “The liberals, or rather the Marxists, are a religious lot. They never change their minds no matter what, and they never let facts confuse them. They also don’t care if the Palestinians are the ones that initiate terror attacks.”

“
We might not be able to sway the true believers, but the great majority of those who come to these demonstrations are just people who want peace and think that if they wish strongly enough it will actually happen. If they abandon the movement there will not be enough support for the rest do anything.”

***

The large conference room was noisy, filled to capacity with business leaders and some of their staff.

“
Ladies and Gentlemen, please take your places. We have a lot to discuss and little time.” The Foreign Minister waited for the conversations to stop. “You were invited here because your companies were all exporters before the Event and some have experience in areas we are interested in. The Cabinet made a decision that will impact on your business activities.

“
The government has decided that certain products may be exported and sold outside of Israel. The conditions will be the same as they used to be for defense items before the Event. For those who don’t know: the export of every item will have to be approved by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Trade and Industry. In departure from pre-Event practice, all foreign deals and contacts will be managed by government-owned corporations set up abroad. For example: if a company wants to export shoes to Timbuktu, the Ministry of Trade sets up a trading company in Timbuktu and all exports go through that company. Each exporter will have a separate government-owned company in the destination country. Smaller exporters will share a trading company. The ownership of these corporations will be transferred to you after the state of emergency is over. We are setting this up to insure that future information doesn’t leak out, at least until after we are done with the Germans, and possibly, the Soviets.

“
We also want to set up several industries locally. These industries will need equipment we don’t have and can’t make fast enough. The government will purchase the necessary equipment abroad and sell it to you. Any questions?”

Ze’ev Hirshson was the first
. “I’m the president of Consolidated Manufacturing. We need raw materials that we used to buy from Europe before the Event. I assume that you will help us to set up a procurement operation in Britain and Africa for these materials. Is that correct?”

“
Not entirely,” the Minister responded. “You give us a list of what you need and, if you have it, information on where to find it, and we buy it for you. You will be able to attach a representative to our missions. At this time only the government will have access to the outside world. One piece of advice: before you try to buy something abroad, check if it’s already available locally and if it isn’t, can it be made here. We have to become self-sufficient in a hurry.”

“
Does that mean that the government will set the prices for all imports?”

“
Not really,” the Minister responded. “We will start by charging you the lowest price in shekels you used to pay before the Event.
As exchange rates get clarified, we’ll modify the prices, after a consultation with your companies. We hope to be out of this business fairly quickly – as soon as diplomatic relations are established with the rest of the world.”

“
You mentioned the auto industry,” Ze’ev asked. “Is there a change in the government’s policies as described three weeks ago?”

“
No change. We expect some entrepreneurship from the captains of our industry, and this time around there will be no subsidies to make lousy cars here. Just think of the possibilities: our population has almost doubled and there are no cars being imported. If you manage to make reasonably modern cars at a reasonable price…” The Minister smiled. “And after the war is over you will own the world market, at least until the Chinese catch up.”

“
So we still get loans on the terms that were offered in the original plan?”

“
The short answer is ‘Yes’. The slightly longer answer is that the government will not loan money to companies that obviously have no clue what they are doing or that won’t have the means to repay the loans in the future.”

After the meeting was over the Minister asked the CEO of Teva to join him in his office.

“Abraham, we need you to be the first,” the Minister told the executive. “You have several drugs that will sell like crazy and are also impossible to reverse engineer with 1941 technology.”

“
Good,” Abraham Hasson responded
.
“I have production capacity about eight times larger than local consumption. We must export to survive. Where and when do we start?”

***

Avigdor Mizrahi had been busy. He had moved his staff from the house near Downing Street to a leased mansion on Hanover Square. There was an option to buy, which might become important if Israel decided to use this house for its permanent embassy. Mizrahi found a real estate agent at the synagogue he attended from time to time in Golders Green. Beth Hamedrash was a small and relatively new congregation, established in 1934. Most of its members were refugees from Germany; Mizrahi was just one more foreigner among them. Being a Palestinian was a bit unusual, but the community was diversified enough and new enough not to look too closely into his business – especially since he discouraged inquiries.

He explained to the agent, a London
native, that he needed a large house with a private garden, separated from its neighbors and in the center of London to be used as a combined office and residence. The agent asked what he was going to do there – just friendly interest from a fellow Jew. Mizrahi presented his cover story: He was a businessman from Palestine, importing and exporting goods; his business was doing well and he needed both an office and a place to live.

When he saw the house for the first time in early August he rejected it. It looked awful – Most of the windows were broken and part of the roof was missing. No doubt there was extensive
damage to the interior as well. In his judgment repairs would take too long and the house was probably too big.  It took more than a week of looking at alternatives for Mizrahi to take a second look at the house on Hanover Square.

Closer inspection revealed two wings. The northern wing, facing Hanover Square and Princess Street, had taken a direct hit from a German bomb and was wrecked. The blast
had also done significant damage to the southern wing facing Hanover Square and Hanover Street, but the basic structure was still sound. Mizrahi decided there were advantages to taking over a damaged, empty house. The price was low which fit his image as a businessman, even if cost was not really a major concern since the British Government provided a line of credit. The whole structure, when restored, would be big enough to house the embassy of a major power with an enclosed courtyard that could provide parking for a future fleet of official vehicles. Under the guise of repairs, modern communications and security equipment could easily be installed.

The remodeling would have taken forever without support from Churchill’s office.  With it, the basic structure was repaired by the end of September, with work left for Mizrahi’s Israeli crew. His staff was now up to eleven
, including a security expert as well as communications and computer engineers. They installed networking equipment, satellite antennas, surveillance cameras and intrusion alarms, none of which were visible from the public areas of the building.

On
Thursday, October 9,
1941, the Israelis moved into the building.

On Monday Mizrahi received a telephone call from the Foreign Office invit
ing him to meet with the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden. Instead of accepting the invitation, Mizrahi asked to speak to Eden.

“
Sir, I can’t connect you,” the woman stammered. “The Secretary of State is not available. I suggest that you come tomorrow at 11:00 am and discuss the matter with him then.”

“
Please tell the Secretary that he is invited to my new office. We just inaugurated it and I would be honored to see him here tomorrow at 11:00. I take it he does not have any other engagements at that time.”

“
Sir, I will give him your message.” She sounded indignant.

An hour later Mizrahi’s phone rang again
. “Mr. Mizrahi,” Eden sounded like he was about to lecture him on something, “what is it with inaugurations and you inviting me?”

“
Mr. Secretary, we just moved into our new offices and I would be honored if you came here. It is only fitting that our first guest be the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. It is also much better for security. At this point in time it may look somewhat unusual for a humble Palestinian to be visiting you.”

Eden thought for a moment and accepted the invitation.

The next day, at 11:00 a.m. sharp, a black Bentley stopped in front of the embassy. Security cameras identified Anthony Eden in the back seat and the gate swung open.

The
ir conversation took place in a small reception room. It was brightly lit by full spectrum lights - cheerful, despite the overcast October sky. Eden accepted a glass of Champagne and was introduced to the unofficial embassy’s First Secretary as well as the Military Attaché.

After brief pleasantries Eden went straight to the point
. “Gentlemen, the British government has decided, as a gesture of generosity and friendship, to settle the issue of the Crown Protectorate of Kuwait. I suggest that we leave the details to our subordinates.”

“
Mr. Eden, I tend to take care of most of the details myself. I suggest that we settle them now and leave the drafting of legal documents to our subordinates.”