TC03

Starting from her collective farm it took a scant half hour for Judith Margolies to  reach the  home of  retired major  general Ariel Sharon at his Sycamore Ranch. It was just a little to the east of Sderot, the nearest town of any size.

Judith was   driven  by  Colonel  Yehoshua   Saguy,  the  chief intelligence officer of  the 143rd  Reservse Armored  Division. Saguy was the first stepping stone in a bridge that Judith hoped would lead to the Prime  Minister. Certainly she had exhausted every other avenue,  and now,  on  the very  brink of  national catastrophe she was very near despair.

Neither Judith nor Saguy were in uniform, as they were not in a duty status. But time was short and they knew it. Their Class B field uniforms folded away  in duffle bags  they stored  in the boot of the colonel's car. Sagay was in casual attire but Judith chose not to wear  the long-sleeved minidress  of the  sort she normally affected. Instead she was dressed to properly  meet a married military  man who was her  superior in rank and  her own age in calendar  time. Judith knew she  would not  be able  to disguise that she looked to be thirty no matter what she wore.

The Sycamore  Ranch  had  all   the  olfactory  ambiance  of  a run-of-the-mill sheep farm, but Judith  did not even crinkle her nose. After all, there was livestock at Yad  Mordechai too. The general was expecting them. He was sitting on his porch sharing tea with his wife Lily when  Yehoshua drove up, and  he rose to greet  his  visitors. Despite their  non-duty  status both  the colonel and lieutenant colonel Margolies saluted the general out of respect,  then Yehoshua  drew  near  to shake  his  superior officer's hand. Judith saw there was real affection between the two men.

Sharon said, "Yeshi, you have  brought arm candy with  you, and you never spoke of her!"

"It is nothing like that, sir," the colonel said with a slightly embarrassed grin. "This is Sgan aluf Judith  Margolies and she, or rather what she  has to say and to show you,  is the reason I have come."

Judith bowed her  head to  affirm what  the colonel  said. Lily Sharon came down from the  porch to  join her husband,  who was genuinely confused. He said, "I knew you looked familiar, I have seen photos but  I  assumed they  were from  the  Suez War.  So youthful you still are! How do you manage to do it?"

"Time travel, sir,"  said  Judith, with  a completely  straight face, and just for a moment Sharon believed her. Then he decided it was a delicious joke and broke into his characteristic laugh. There would come a time when she couldn't make that joke even if she tried.

"Lily, We are to entertain a celibrity today," he told his wife. "This is Judith Margolies." Such was Judith's fame as a soldier and a Nazi hunter that Lily could only remain  silent and stare in genuine awe. More soberly now,  Sharon said,  "Whatever you have come to tell me is for  the ears of Lily also. If not, then you might as well leave now."

Yehoshua assured him,  "Sir, nothing  we have  is from  Israeli intelligence,  because  Israeli   intelligence  has  practically nothing. That, in fact, is precisely the problem."

Judith hefted the briefcase she  was carrying. "If we could go indoors, sir?"

In the general's spacious home Judith saw a  large dining table under an ornate chandelier. She asked General Sharon  for his permission to use it to lay out what she  had brought, which he cheerfully  granted. She reached into  her briefcase  and began laying out documents. As she did this,  Sharon, his  wife, and Colonel Saguy seated themselves, and  Judith began to  speak as she worked.

"I think, general, that despite the fact that you were born here and I came from Britain,  we are very  much alike. We  are both patriots who have fought hard for the continued existence of our small country, and  we both have voiced the  opinion that lately it is led  by idiots. How very unfortunate that  is, sir. Within twenty-four hours  you, I,  and Colonel Saguy  will be  in field dress and the country will be at war."

She paused to see  the startled reaction  of the  general, then continued to lay out her evidence. She said, "Aman has nothing like this, sir, because the Egyptians have put the canal under a SAM umbrella that makes aerial reconnaisance quite perilous, and besides, the belief that Egypt will  not attack has taken on the dimensions of religious belief."

"There what is the  source of  this information?" demanded the general.

"The B'nei Elohim Institute, sir."

General Sharon had  been raised  to think  in entirely  secular terms, and he was proud of that fact. "The ones with the crazy white horns? They are religious kooks themselves."

"Kooks, sir, perhaps, but they  are kooks who grounded  most of the Egyptian  air force on the  first day of the  Six Days. They have  aided me  in  every way  to bring  Nazi  war criminals  to justice. And now they have reached  out to me with this imagery, even as I am now reaching out to you, sir."

Sharon began looking at them. The photographs were mostly white, with the Suez Canal running  through them  as a gray  band, and they were speckled with tiny shapes that were quite distinctive: Soviet-supplied T-55 main  battle tanks. To the untrained eye they resembled nothing so much  as a sketch  done in ink  by an atavistic child, but  Sharon knew every kilometer  of the canal. It was unusual, but clearly genuine.

Colonel Saguy said,  "We counted  thirteen hundred  tanks, sir, T-55s, some T-62s,  all nearly flush on the western  bank of the canal. That  is far  more than they've  ever brought  forward in exercises before.  It is more than  they had even last  May, the first time we thought they were going to cross over."

"Thirteen hundred?  That's their  reserves  as  well. But  this photograph, I've never seen the like."

Judith supplied an answer: "It's a negative of  a thermal image taken from a B'nei Elohim platform that...well, sir, it can best be described  as an airship.  It moves fairly slowly  and sounds like a faint whirlwind, and it would not do for it to be seen by day. These images are from two nights ago. No one in Zahal cares to have a  look, but the entire Egyptian Second  Army is sitting on the canal  from Qantara to Deveroir, and  the entire Egyptian Third Army likewise is parked from Suez City north to the lake."

Sharon didn't ask whether the enemy was massed on the shores of Great  Bitter Lake  as well. He knew even the  Egyptians would consider it unfeasible to make a crossing there. And there were no roads to Israel north of  Qantara. But he did say, "This is hard to believe. Certainly  our own high-altitude reconnaissance planes,  flying  out of  range  of  the  SAMS, would  have  seen something."

"No sir,"   said  Lilith. "Everything, everything   is  under camoflage netting,  so you can  only catch them after  dusk with infrared,  and when  you  go thermal  you need  to  fly under  a thousand  mneters  to  resolve  the gun  barrels.  They've  been getting all this  ready since August. But Chief  Idiot Eli Zeira preaches that Egypt isn't confident about going to war and Sadat is doing everything in his power to feed that belief, right down to a flow of pure shit from a double agent."

"How will they breach the sand berm we've piled  up flush along the east side of the canal?"

"With four hundred fifty water cannons, sir,  powered by petrol and  drawing  water from  the  canal  itself. Then  they'll  use ferries and throw over pontoons.  The B'nei Elohim say they will start  at  1400  tomorrow  and  they will  have  at  least  five bridgeheads punched through the berm by dusk. They'll bring SA-6 and  7 air  cover across  the canal  with them,  not to  mention self-propelled triple A."

"I believe her," Saguy said. "The Egyptians have brought forward everything they need for a  crossing. This is no  exercise. And when  they break  through  the poor  fellows  garrisoned on  the 'impregnable' Bar-Lev Line will be fed to a meat grinder."

"Why do your religious kooks say Sadat will start a war he knows he can't win?"

"My kooks, sir, say Sadat thinks he needs this war just to stay in  power.  They  say  the  last  war,  the  Six  Days,  was  so humiliating to  the Egyptians  even losing  another war  will be acceptable if  they can  win back  a piece  of the  Sinai, maybe enough to reopen the canal to  shipping. And we know Syria wants the Golan  back, sir. The  B'nei Elohim say  it's going to  be a two-front war. But  with everyone in our  government buying into Zeira's 'assessment'  we're going to  be caught by  surprise and lose not only the Golan but the whole Sinai peninsula."

Sharon said, "If  Sadat  and  Assad are  tempted  to cross  the borders of  the country itself the  PM may resort to  the Samson Option. Things are different now than in the Six Days. She could send Cairo and Damascus up in clouds of radioactive smoke."

Judith said, "Yes sir, the B'nei Elohim have also said as much. The Soviets would,  of course, retaliate by taking  out Tel Aviv and  Jerusalem,  and  the  Americans will  sit  back  and  count themselves lucky it ended there. But  it won't end there for us. It will be like the Nazi catastrophe all over again, for us."

In the silence that followed, the general's  wife Lily blurted, "Never again!"

Sharon was on the verge of a decision, but he said, "Tomorrow is Yom Kippur. There are twelve religious kooks in the Knesset who would never assent to a mobilization on our highest holy day."

Judith replied, "Not  even the  National Religious  Party could block  mobilization when  hostilities actually  break out,  sir, which will be, as I said, at 1400 tomorrow. Besides, tomorrow is also Ramadan, which is Egypt's highest holy day. They're willing to set it aside to start  a conflict. The only question, sir, is whether we  take our  own religious principles  to be  a suicide pact."

The general's face grew stern. It was as though he had switched from a retirement mindset to his  old ways as a  commander with the flick of a switch. He said, "I am calling you both to duty status as of this moment, on  my own authority. Are your unforms on hand?"

"Yes sir," they said together.

"Take these documents to Major General Shmuel Gonen at Southern Command  in Be'er  Sheva. By  the time  you arrive  I will  have already spoken  to him by  phone." He looked directly at Judith and continued. "You have proceeded correctly to go from Yehoshua to me, and now you're going from me to Gonen, and  I will do my best to persuade him to send  you on to General Elazar. At best, we can  get a pre-emptive  strike on Syria and  Egypt overnight. The next best  would be a general call-up of  reservists at dawn tomorrow, which would give us half a day to get ready. At worst, someone in the chain from Gorodish to Golda will put your photos in the round file. But you have  to try, because as my wife just said, 'Never again'!"

Judith did brief Lt. General David Elazar but  things went much slower than Sharon guessed. As late as 7 AM  Saturday morning Elazar was still bickering  with Defense Minister  Moshe Dayan. But more evidence was trickling in besides  Judith's photos and her messages from the B'nei Elohim. Army intelligence reported the evacuation of the families of Soviet advisors from Egypt and Syria.

At 8 AM Elazar and  Dayan met  with Prime Minister  Golda Meir, Deputy PM Yigal Allon, and Military Secretary  Yisrael Lior. It was Lior who settled matters by reading a telegram from the head of Mossad that not only supported everything Judith told Elazar, but added many amplifying details.

Only five Egyptian brigades remained in  Cairo, everything else was in the Canal Zone. Syria was expected to attack  the Golan but Sadat would  not call  off his  own attack  if they  didn't follow  through. The Soviets  did not  know  Egypt  was  about to go  to  war,  by  Sadat's design,  but  the  Egyptians  were entirely confounded by Israel's complete non-response  to their preparations.

After that Dayan had no more argument with Elazar, and in fact a new shakiness in his voice betrayed a nervousness and doubt that infected even the PM. Elazar called for a pre-emptive strike on Syria and Egypt  at noon, but this was overruled  by Golda Meir. The United States was the last ally Israel had, she pointed out. "If we strike first, we won't get help from anybody."

Even a full mobilization might be viewed as  an aggressive act. But she was willing to do a partial call-up. Mobilization orders went out to the reservists  and regulars of the  Israel Defense Force while the soldiers were at home,  or attending synagogue, or even living overseas.

Ironically, the country being  more or less  shut down  for Yom Kippur left the roads clear  for the reservists to  reach their units without undue delay.

Egypt’s attack consisted of 100,000 soldiers, 1,300 tanks, 240 warplanes and 2,000 pieces of  artillery. At the same time, at the other  end of the  long axis  of Israel, six  hundred Syrian tanks advanced across the uplands known as the Golan Heights.

In the Sinai, Israel  lost two hundred  of their  three hundred tanks right away, but a pair of extra tank divisions were rushed forward to halt  the  Egyptian advance. Egyptian troops using Soviet-supplied anti-tank weaponry held the Israelis  to a line five miles east of the Suez Canal. Meanwhile more Egyptian tanks and infantry massing on their side of the  canal were protected from Israeli air  attack  by a  tough  shield of  anti-aircraft missiles guided by radar, again courtesy of the Soviet Union.

But Egypt didn't have  things all their  way. Israel also took delivery of cargo, courtesy of the United States, to replace the ordnance and equipment being consumed by the war.

After the first  shipment Golda  Meir and  Moshe Dayan  stepped aboard one of the empty transports as it was being made ready to fly back to the United States. Judith Margolies was seated alone in a chair  that folded  down from  a bulkhead. She was under arrest, but not under restraint, other than a  seatbelt she was free to remove. They were relying on her honor as an officer of the IDF not to try to escape.

Dayan sharply called  her to  attention but  such was  Judith's anger that  she merely glared at  the two ministers and  made no move  to remove  her seatbelt  and  stand up. Meir cleared her throat and snapped, "Do you know who I am?"

"The real question, Madame Prime Minister, is do you know who I am?"

"Oh yes, Sgan aluf Margolies."

"Doctor Margolies, please,"  Judith  insisted. "I resigned my commission  the instant  I reported  to General  Eleazar and  he informed me  I was  under arrest.  So you must  forgive me  if I don't stand up."

"Doctor Margolies it is,  then. We are  still far  from winning this war,  but I well  know I have you  to thank for  keeping it from turning into a complete rout at the very beginning. And I'm well aware of your crucial role  in every conflict going back to the War of Independence."

Judith guestured at  herself,  the sole  piece  of cargo  being returned to America on  the plane. "This is a strange  way of showing your gratitude, Madame Prime Minister."

"The Americans have been demanding your extradition  for over a year now. The  exact reason has never been made  clear to me. It has  something  to  do  with your  association  with  the  B'nei Elohim Historical Institute. Heretofore  I've held them off with repeated inquiries for  more information, but now  I find myself at the end of my rope."

When Judith remained defiantly silent the defense minister Moshe Dayan spoke for the first time since ordering her to stand. "The country is in desperate need  of resupply to avoid  losing this war. The American President came through with the first shipment but he has conditioned further aid on your extradition."

Judith rolled up  one sleeve  of  her field  uniform to  reveal the six  numerals hastily  tattooed  there  by the  Germans  at Ohrdruf-Nord. "And what awaits  me in America,  Minister Dayan? Will I get a matching tattoo for my other arm?"

"The President assured me  you will  not be  mistreated," Meier told her. "From the information I have, you are to assist in the investigation of a member of this Institute."

"Then the President is wasting his time, Madam Prime Minister. I am a subject  of Her  Majesty  and more  the the  point, I'm  a citizen of this country. I am  not to be made to assist anything in America at  gunpoint. I will, in fact  refuse this assistance in retaliation."

"Only the initial contact is mandatory," Dayan said. "If, after hearing them out, you agree to help the Americans,  you will be given a  salary and a  car and  most important, your  freedom to move about,  and even to return  home at any time  afterward, if you wish.  If you  refuse, again after  hearing them  make their case, you will  be returned home with the next  aid shipment and no harm done."

"I will return home," Judith solemnly assured him,  "and if the mismanagement  of this  war  haven't driven  you  and the  Prime Minister from your current positions,  the court cases that will follow my illegal abduction will do so most assuredly."

Dayan allowed himself  to  smile. "Doctor Margolies, everyone knows you are a woman with an  indomitable will. If it down to a choice of  arresting you  to ensure  the continued  existence of this country and letting you run  free and holding on the office of Defense Minister the path is quite clear. Never again!"