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CAIRO TO DAMASCUS
frustrated the Arab plan—as well as British intentions of reentering Palestine via the back door on the heels of the Arab
Legion. Mainly, however, the plan boomeranged because both
Arab and British wholly underestimated the fighting prowess
of what I've called the "new" Jew fighting for his homeland
with back to the wall.
I thought it quite symbolic for the Arabs to be cooped up
inside the ancient walls while the Jews remained master of
nearly everything modern outside those ramparts. But could
the Jews continue to keep the Arab bottled up, in the face of
slashing attacks and despite the prolongation of the siege?
MY BREAK FOR FREEDOM
I COULDN'T wait indefinitely for the answer. I had seen
what I had come to see—the creation of Medinat Yisrael, its
birth pangs, the Jews at work, living, fighting, dying. I was
overwhelmingly impressed. The quality of heroism I met
here was not always spectacular; it was often the quiet everyday fortitude that makes heroes of an entire people.
Having seen and appraised, what was there for a restless
(and famished) reporter to do now? To move on. To Jordan,
Syria, Lebanon, to the places I had planned to see. By what
route would one get there? Through the Arab lines. But how?
All the correspondents were asking this question: they wanted
to get on the Arab side to send out their stories. There were
tantalizing rumors that the Jews had built a secret Toad to Tel
Aviv over obscure mountain trails. Some of the Americans
planned to get to Tel Aviv that way. Others were waiting for
something to happen.
I decided I must attempt to go through no-man's land to
the Arab side. This was the only way I could get into the
Arab countries to the East. I turned for help to an Israeli official who had borrowed my copy of Under Cover. He had