330
CAIRO TO DAMASCUS
ger at his waist, stepped out, after whom came Rabbi Ben
Zion, Mukhtar Weingarten, and a bearded leader of the
Haganah forces. The rabbi was escorted back to the Jewish
quarter but Weingarten and the Haganah man, his arm in a
sling, were surrounded in the courtyard. Dr. Pablo Azcarate,
the worried-looking chief of the UN Commission, appeared
and joined the principals. I edged up to Weingarten. He was
of medium height, with bespectacled blue eyes, serious face,
professorial beard, and a Western felt hat—strangely incongruous amid the colored khaffiyas. He looked like a preoccupied schoolmaster, with anything but a heroic appearance. As
for the Haganah leader, he looked like a Talmudic student,
with a pale, intellectual face. A nurse had also come with
them—a thin slip of a girl who appeared exhausted and worn,
dressed in a bloodstained white smock.
In an impersonal voice Major Tel began reading the terms
of the agreement: (1) The surrender of all arms and their
seizure by the Arab Legion; (2) All able-bodied men to be
taken as prisoners of war; (3) Old men, women, children,
and all seriously wounded to be allowed to enter the New
City through arrangements with the Red Cross; (4) The Arab
Legion to guarantee the welfare of all Jews who surrendered;
and (5) The Arab Legion to occupy the Jewish quarters.
The terms were fair and merciful. "How about the women
who fought as soldiers?" I asked the major.
"They will be treated as civilians and returned with the
others."
"That's not fair to us. Their women shoot as well as the
men." The voice was that of an English deserter, a rifle slung
over his shoulder.
THE LAST EXODUS
IT WAS exactly 3.25 p.m. It was agreed that there should be
no delay in removing the Jews, for once word got around,