The Shield: a novel (49 page)

“
I am gratified that you want to resume our peace negotiations,” Dr. Mazen said. “It is the right thing to do for both our peoples. I take it that your government changed its position on releasing our prisoners and removing settlements.”

“
That’s not exactly why I invited you,” responded Amos. “I think that we should abandon the charade of peace negotiations. After all, you were more than happy to let the Nazis drop an atom bomb on us.”

Mazen moved uncomfortably in his seat
. “That was just talk. We need to calm the extremists. There is really nothing to it.”

“
Ah, but that statement isn’t accurate.” Amos smiled
.
“Tell me, Ahmad, do you consider yourself a Palestinian refugee?”

“
It’s not a question of what I consider myself. I am a Palestinian and my family was expelled from Lod. So, by definition, I am a Palestinian refugee.”

“
But you personally were not expelled from anywhere. You were born in a refugee camp near Ramallah, under Jordanian rule. You were not even a glimmer in your father’s eye when our war of independence happened.”

“
You just said it yourself, Prime Minister: I was born in a refugee camp among other refugees and so I am a refugee.”

Am
os Nir sipped his tea for a moment looking at the Palestinian Chairman. He seemed to be satisfied with his righteous response. “Dr. Mazen, you are a historian with a Ph.D. in the history of the world war we are in the midst of. Can you give me an example of another group in history that had third and fourth generation refugees? The twentieth century will be more than satisfactory.”

Am
os Nir kept sipping his tea, giving Mazen ample time to respond.

“
I don’t understand your question, Prime Minister. Every group of refugees that has children…” Mazen trailed off.

He started again: “If refugees are not exterminated, they multiply, have children, the children have children and so on. I still don’t understand what you are saying.”

“Okay, I’ll explain.” Amos picked up a cookie. “You know that in our timeline after the end of this war about 13 million ethnic Germans were expelled from Eastern Europe. They became refugees. Can you point out to me where their refugee camps were located in, say, 1980.”

Mazen was shaking his head: “
Amos, you know that there were no refugee camps for them. They were allowed to resettle and live normal lives.”

“
True, but they were not allowed to resettle in the countries that expelled them. They were absorbed by either Germany or Austria. Some went to other places, but it is telling that there are no accurate records of who went where.

“
Let me ask you another question: In 1948, after Israel declared independence, the Arab countries started expelling Jews. The final number of Jewish refugees was close to eight hundred thousand. In which camps were they housed in 1980?

“
In 1947 Pakistan separated from India. Millions of Hindus and Moslems became refugees. In which camps were they housed in 1980?

“
These are just some examples out of many. If you give me the name of just one such place, we can arrive at a peace agreement in an instant.”

“
You know that none of these people were in refugee camps in 1980
.
” Mazen was angry now
.
“What is the connection between all these people and the Palestinians?”

“
None really.” Amos was smiling now. “Except that the general rule emphasizes the exception. The Palestinians are unique in their status. They remained refugees, living in camps on UN handouts, for generations. The same UN also did nothing to help them move to other countries and, in fact, discouraged them from moving. A clear violation of their human rights.

“
I have to remind you of another piece of history: Israel was ready to accept the UN partition plan; The Arabs, including a great majority of those living in Palestine at that time, refused and attacked. The Arab side lost the war. I don’t want to get into the question of whether your people were expelled as you claim or left at the urging of their leadership as our historians claim. It is immaterial why they left. What is important is what happened next.

“
There was no difference either ethnically, linguistically or culturally between the Arabs of Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria or any other neighboring Arab country. From this it would follow that your people could be absorbed by those countries and you would have been born a citizen of Jordan. No second, third and umpteenth generation of refugees, no misery and living a hard life being fed by the UN.

“
The problem was that your Arab brethren hated Israel so much that they made your people into a tool of war. There was also some tribal hatred and fear of competition, but that was a side issue. Preserving them as refugees was vital to keeping up pressure on Israel. The UN cooperated. They set up a unique institution just to take care of you. I am saying ‘you’ because the term ‘Palestinian’ didn’t apply to Arabs until the late 1960s – as you know the Palestinian national identity was invented by Arafat, an Egyptian himself. Very few of your people were granted citizenship in the Arab world and you were always treated as pariahs there. Your people were cruelly abused by the other Arabs and left to their own devices. Those Arabs would do it again. That calamity started only seven years from now and was perpetuated by the forces in power now in the Arab world.”

Mazen jumped out of his armchair
. “What you are saying are partial truths mixed with lies. I don’t have to listen to this.”

“
Mr. Chairman, please calm down. I’ll be done in a minute and then we have to discuss a number of important issues, but the historical background is necessary.”

Am
os waited for the Chairman to sit back in his seat. “There is just one point left that I can’t resist making: in the timeline we came from you claimed you wanted to set up a state that was supposed to live in peace with us. You know that that was impossible for a simple reason: the four or six hundred thousand original refugees multiplied into many millions. Only a fraction of these lived in the territories under your control and there was no way to absorb the others without massive help from the other Arabs. That help was not forthcoming – They gave you money to fight but never really wanted you to build a healthy economy. But I am done with this, and unless you want to add something, I suggest we move on to the real reason for this meeting.”

“
Mr. Prime Minister, I don’t agree with most of what you said, but it would be a waste of time to argue. I don’t see why these issues have to be discussed now.”

“
Mr. Chairman, I wanted to present to you the background before attempting to arrive at some kind of agreement. In your discussions with the other fractions - you know what discussion I’m referring to - you considered leaving for Jordan. Is this still on the table?”

Mazen looked surprised
. “I will have to think about this and confer with my colleagues. Would you consider such an option?”

“
We probably would,” said Amos. “The territory you vacate would come in handy, and we would have no more security headaches. That would be worth a lot to us. Your people would become citizens of Jordan and stop being despised refugees.”

Ahmad Mazen had a crafty look on his face
. “What about the total embargo on export of knowledge?”

“
We can work around it. If you leave with just basic possessions and the knowledge in your heads, you’re free to go right now.”

Mazen was surprised
. “You’re not afraid of our scholars taking all they know and building a great Palestinian state that may defeat you in the not so far future?”

Am
os smiled: “Be realistic, my friend. First, you will be a bunch of Arab refugees from Palestine crossing over into Jordan or Lebanon or Syria. Maybe even Egypt. How do you think your brethren will receive you? You will number over seven hundred thousand and I expect that you will be treated exactly like your ancestors in 1948. Even if your census numbers were correct and there were two million Palestinians, you really think that the Arab rulers of here and now will share power with you? Or even feed you? Even if they wanted to, how would they do that?

“
As to creating a great state: the first order of business, after you are herded into refugee camps, will be fighting for supremacy between your different factions. The remnants of this fight will be sent to attack us. How soon do you think you will have your state and how much will your superior knowledge, without the requisite industrial infrastructure, help you? And by the way, forget about the Nazis helping you. They don’t care what happens to any of the Arabs and are busy fighting for their own survival – a fight I assure you they will lose.”

Mazen hesitated for a moment
. “Why are you telling me all this? You said just a moment ago that you would be happy for us to leave.”

“
And so I would, but it would be cruel to create a new multi-generational refugee problem. It would be worse in this timeline since the international community is not aware of you and doesn’t care; you would get very little assistance. I can’t take upon my people the responsibility and guilt of genocide. You’ve cost us many lives and keep educating your children to hate us and sacrifice themselves, but my conscience would not allow me to let you all die in the Jordanian desert.”

“
Then we stay,” Mazen pronounced, “and try to negotiate a peaceful arrangement.”

“
You think it’s possible? You think Hamas and even your own Fatah will let you rule or even live if you really strive for peace with us?”

Mazen didn’t answer. After a while he asked quietly: “Why did you invite me here?”

“I think I have a solution to our mutual problem, a solution that will allow your people to leave with all their possessions, including their homes. You will even be able to take with you your universities with all their equipment and books.”

Understanding
came suddenly into Ahmad Mazen’s eyes. He got up and started pacing. It took him a couple of minutes to calm down.

“
Time travel,” he said after sitting down. “To where and when do you propose to send us?”

“
I’ll be frank with you. I had much more time to think about this than you have. I’ll explain my position and let you go back to your office and think about it.

“
We can’t send you back into the near history. There are several reasons for that. I will mention only two: if we send you, say into the middle of the First World War you will find yourself trying to do several things at the same time. You will have to defend against the Ottoman Turks who will not take your intrusion lightly
.
You will have, at the same time, to provide for your population and establish an organized state. You may not survive or, at the least, pay a very high price for this attempt.

“
Our other concern is that you would screw up the timeline so much and so close to us that the result would be unpredictable.”

“
Okay, what about going back 2000 years?” Mazen asked.

“
Basically the same thing, you end up in the middle of the Roman era having to fight and we risk disruption to our timeline.

“
As you know we are in an area that has been populated for thousands of years. No matter how far back we go, someone will be here to resist you, except if we go back to the end of the last ice age – about 11 thousand years back. The advantage is that very few humans are around, so no resistance, but there is a disadvantage: the climate is going to be colder than we are used to. If you prefer a warm climate and no human competition at all, we can transfer you about 120 thousand years back. Or as far back as necessary to insure both your survival and ours. Of course, we will provide you with enough supplies, animals and seeds to enable you to build a prosperous society.

“
Please consult with your people, ask your scientists to verify what I said. When you make up your mind we will invite your scientists to participate in the decision. We will send back instruments to make sure things are as we think they should be. Your people will be a party to all the decisions.”

“What if we decide to stay?”

“That will be disappointing. I promise you that we will not tolerate terrorism. Those of you who will not accept this will either die or be deported to the neighboring countries. We will also make you stop the hateful education in your schools and adjust your radio and TV broadcast – no more hate propaganda. Our Jewish population is growing and by the end of the year we will be about 14 million strong. You will most likely be assimilated, especially as the Arab world will be different. We will not allow incessant wars against Israel. If need be, we will destroy any hostile regimes. I don’t mean that you’ll convert to Judaism, but that you will learn how to live as a peaceful minority in a democratic Jewish state.

“I expect a response by the end of November. It will take us a couple of months to make the preparations, if you decide to go, that is.”