THRILLER: The Galilee Plot: (International Biological Terror, The Mossad, and... A Self-contended Couple) Read Free

greatest importance, and he had not the shadow of a doubt that it would
arouse my interest. Perhaps he was right. I listened to his theory.
    “If Jews have different
D.N.A., it should be possible to cultivate a micro-organism that will adapt and
become dependent on the D.N.A. of Jews only. And if this micro-organism is
malignant, it will attack and kill Jews. Only Jews. If the Germans had been a
bit smarter, they wouldn’t have needed all those cumbersome camps of theirs…”
    “That really is a
diabolical idea!” I couldn’t resist responding.
    He was silent.
    “And you’re going to try
this?”
    “Perhaps this is my
mission on the earth!” he declared.
    “A diabolical mission!” I
exclaimed.
    “That’s a kind of mission
too,” he replied, sticking to his guns and making no attempt at compromise. And
without hesitation he began setting out his plan before me.
    It was based on the
adaptation of Rickettsia rickettsii , the micro-organism that causes
Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which has the same rate of lethality, i.e. 90%,
as P. Pestis itself, the bacterium which apparently caused serious plagues in
the Middle Ages and succeeding years and exterminated a third of the world’s population
at that time, except that the micro-organism in those days did not adapt and
did not acquire a dependence on particular D.N.A.
    “This time it will be
different,” Amin assured me as if donning the cloak of a comforter.
    “It’s going to cost you a
fortune, doing that.”
    “My benefactors are
prepared to invest however much is needed.”
    “Some benefactors!” I
tried to inject a note of sarcasm into my reply, but I doubt I even managed
mild scorn.
    It occurred to me that if I
were to go into the kitchen, choose a sharp and long-bladed knife and plunge it
into Amin’s heart, I might perhaps prevent disaster befalling the people among
whom, by the will of fate, I was numbered. A patriot? I didn’t see myself as a
patriot. And however strange it may sound – I felt concerned for this idiot,
Amin Abu Halil, who would be remembered as an eternal disgrace both among his
own people and his “benefactors”.
    “You’re taking on yourself
something that will bring grief to you, to the whole of humanity and most
important of all, bring grief to your own people, that you’re so proud of,” I
said everything that was in my heart and felt relief as the idea of the long
and sharp-bladed knife from the kitchen passed out of my consciousness.
    And perhaps, I’m not flesh
and blood and spirit and heart, animated by honour and a sense of
responsibility, but just a little coward.
    Amin Abu Halil rose from
his seat, held out his bony hand to me, something he didn’t do often, if at
all. I shook the outstretched hand and he surprised me yet again, saying in
pure Hebrew: “Shalom!”
    I echoed him: “Shalom!”
    He added in English: “I’m
leaving now. It’s been nice knowing you.”
    “For me too,” I answered
him.
    And that was how we
parted.
     
    The report in the paper was
as follows:
    The new, integrated
village of Hasda caused a worldwide sensation in its time, and perhaps also
encouraged dreams of peace and an end to violence and hatred between Jews and
Arabs. It was established, unlike anything that had gone before, on an Arab
initiative, with Saudi support, both overt and covert, as an experiment in
shared living between Jews and Arabs. Ten young families, most of them
offspring of the Peace Now movement, on the extreme Left of Israeli politics,
came to live there. Each family was given a house and a large patch of land,
which they were obliged to cultivate and cherish, among the similar houses and
gardens of the Arabs. At first nothing special was heard about the practical
development of the place, and there was a general feeling that “no news is good
news”.
    A few years before the
foundation of the village of Hasda, a settlement known as Neve Shalom or
“Groves of Peace” had been set up by Father Bruno, a