(CHAPTER V I I I )
OFF FOR THE HOLY WAR!
"If we Moslems choose to spit on the Jews we could
drown them. . . . We will crush the microbe of
Zionism forever. . . . You will see how we fight
like Allah's own messengers!"
Arab man-on-the-street
CAIRO'S mood, the hour before our departure, was one of
excitement or terror—depending on your religion. Jews were
imprisoned because they were Zionists, and beaten on streets
because they were Jews. They huddled in their homes, afraid
to leave, afraid to worship on the Sabbath because the Ikhwan
had spread rumors that synagogues were used for "plotting."
Newspapers daily whipped up new excitement with news
from Palestine: FIERCE BATTLE IN HOLY CITY'S NO-MAN'S
LAND. . . . HAIFA EXPRESS BLOWN UP AGAIN. . . .
MARTIAL
LAW PROCLAIMED. . . . There were celebrations as news of
the dynamiting of the Jewish Agency building in Jerusalem,
by a car carrying TNT and "flying an American flag," was announced, and later when Arabs ambushed a large convoy near
Bethlehem, seized scores of vehicles, and killed many Jews.
Under Arab League sponsorship, Fawzy Bey el Kawoukjy
(who had spent the war years in Germany, marrying there1)
had begun to attack with his Yarmuk Army of Liberation.
1
For other details of his stay in Germany, see Chapter XXII.