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The president was fixated on Freidman, and Kennedy couldn’t really blame him. Despite Freidman’s denials, Kennedy had been thinking quite a bit about the possibility that he had ordered the assassination of Ali. There were many logical reasons why Freidman should not have ordered such a bold move, but on the other hand, recently he had proven to be increasingly unpredictable and brazen. The president was looking to Kennedy for an answer and she settled on an honest if somewhat cautious course.
“A year ago, sir, I would have not thought Ben Freidman capable of such a drastic move, but today I’m not so sure.” Kennedy hesitated for a moment as if she were about to say something else and then stopped.
The president picked up on this and said, “What is it?”
“I’m trying to step back and see the big picture from the Israelis’ point of view. It’s been a bloody couple of years for them. The homicide bomb
ers have taken a massive toll in both life and morale. Israel already receives almost no support from the international community, so in that regard they risk almost nothing. They could be expanding the war … an extension of their attitude that if you hit them they will hit you back even harder.”
President Hayes nodded. “Hit the Palestinians where they feel safest, and keep them off balance.”
Kennedy shrugged. “It’s a possibility. One that I think is a bit of a stretch, but a possibility.”
Hayes seemed to like this line of thinking. It gave him something he could get his hands around to explain why Freidman would do something so reckless. In a final effort to draw out any disagreement, Hayes asked, “Can anyone right now come up with a suspect other than Mossad?”
Rapp had been listening keenly to the discussion, and despite his complete lack of faith in Ben Freidman, he thought there were quite a few other possibilities that should be explored. He also knew a few things that the others didn’t, but under orders from Kennedy he was to keep his opinions to himself until they were alone with the president.
53
Prime Minister Goldberg had never in his life felt so beleaguered. This was worse than the Yom Kippur War, when he had been surrounded by Syrian forces and shelled until his ears bled, and ordered by his commanders to hold his position until a counterattack could be mounted. He had hung on for three days without sleep. He and his men were fighting a much larger Syrian force in a bloody battle for the Golan Heights. The counterattack eventually arrived and an angry Israeli army threw the Syrians back across the border and closed to within spitting distance of Damascus.
Then the United States and the Soviet Union had stepped in and tried to separate the belligerents like fighting children on a playground. Goldberg would never forget the lesson he learned in 1973, and that was to never trust his Arab neighbors. They had attacked on the holiest Jewish holiday of the year, when Israelis were either at home or in their synagogues praying. For the first three days they had hammered the Jewish people, and then when the Israeli army regrouped and pushed both the Egyptians and the Syrians back across their borders, the Arabs screamed for international intervention. They launched a sneak attack and then whined for peace and of course wanted their land back even though thousands of Israelis lay dead.
Under the pressure of an Arab oil embargo the United States had forced Israel to pull back and concede much of the land they had captured in a war they did not start. How many times did the world have to see proof that Arabs could not be trusted? It frustrated Goldberg to no end that the leaders of Europe refused to see things as they were. It saddened him deeply that despite everything his people had been through on that cursed continent that they did not come to the aid of Israel. All Goldberg wanted for his people was a safe place to live. And if things weren’t already bad enough having to deal with suicidal Palestinians and bigoted heads of state, he now had to contend with dissenters within his own government.
He was tired. The years of leading the fight had taken their toll and Goldberg’s energy was beginning to wane. At the rate things were going there was a good chance he wouldn’t survive the week without being subjected to a vote of no confidence. To start with, the UN and a healthy number of his cabinet members were up in arms over the events in Hebron, and now someone had assassinated the Palestinian ambassador in New York City.
One of Goldberg’s aides had briefed him on the assassination during breakfast, and his private reaction to the news had been one of desperate fear. The very first person who came to mind was his old friend, and the director general of Mossad, Ben Freidman. Goldberg had been asking himself all day if Freidman was capable of launching such a disastrous operation on his own. The answer was a startling yes, which made him all the more uncomfortable with the meeting that was about to take place. The prime minister would have preferred to let the problem fade away. There was enough bloodshed in the Palestinian–Israeli conflict that the ambassador’s death would fade to the background sooner than one would think, but unfortunately, for the next month or two, things were sure to get worse. It was still early in America, but Goldberg had no doubt that as the day progressed President Hayes, or more likely Secretary of State Berg, would be on the phone demanding assurances that Israel had had no hand in the brutal act.
Goldberg was tempted to bury his head in the sand, but that would be foolish and contrary to his character. He needed the truth from Freidman and then after that he could decide what to say to the Americans. He ran a frustrated hand through his thin white hair and looked at his wall clock. It was approaching 2:30 in the afternoon. Freidman was late, which was not a surprise. The head of Mossad came and went as he wished.
It was a few minutes later that Freidman finally arrived to find a nervous prime minister sitting behind his desk. Freidman knew what this was about. He was the prime suspect in the assassination of Ambassador Ali. In contrast to the prime minister’s suit, Freidman was dressed casually in slacks and a loose-fitting, short-sleeved dress shirt. As always, the shirt was untucked to conceal the .38-caliber revolver he carried in a belt holster at the small of his back. Freidman never went anywhere without it.
Slowly, he lowered himself into one of the two armchairs opposite Goldberg’s desk. The beleaguered expression on his friend’s face did not go unnoticed. “David, you do not look good.”
Goldberg had the type of face that had surrendered to gravity almost completely. It was hard to believe that this roly-poly man had served in combat. He shook his head, heavy jowls sagging. “I am in the fight of my life.”
Freidman interpreted this comment as the exaggeration of a politician who had lost perspective. In a voice void of any compassion or sympathy, Freidman said, “This is nothing.”
Looking up under hooded eyes, Goldberg studied the supremely confident head of Mossad and felt a bit of anger spark from within. “Maybe you haven’t noticed lately, Ben, but my cabinet is about to fall apart. The UN is screaming for inspectors to be sent into Hebron and after what happened in New York last night, it’s a foregone conclusion that they will pass a resolution.”
“And you can tell them to stick their resolution—”
Goldberg slammed his fist down on his desk, cutting Freidman off. “I will be able to tell them no such thing,” he yelled, “because I will no longer be prime minister! Thanks to you I will be long gone before the first inspector arrives.”
“You’re exaggerating,” responded Freidman with a disgusted shake of his head.
“Exaggerating,” snapped Goldberg. “I’m doing no such thing. You have gotten me into this mess due to your overzealous actions in Hebron!”
“Don’t criticize me for being overzealous. The whole reason you were elected was because the Israeli people wanted someone who would be overzealous.”
“You didn’t need to level the whole damn neighborhood,” Goldberg shot back.
“Yes I did!” screamed Freidman. “Remember Falid Al-Din? We sent a missile right into his car, and he walked away. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again.”
“So you destroyed an entire neighborhood!”
“You’re damn right I did! This is a war!”
