Green Shirts and Red Fezzes
73
tank. They stopped and went into the bushes where we paid
them the money. When they came out the tank was gone.
Don't think we are without friends," Moustafa continued.
"We have English deserters and Germans fighting with us.
They make some of our bombs. We also have Czechs and
Yugoslavs spying for us. They go right into Tel Aviv and tell
us how things are. They are fine spies."
At Green Shirt headquarters, Moustafa introduced me to a
fiery Egyptian who was training the volunteers. His name was
Izzed-een Abdul Kader. He told me, Moustafa interpreting,
that he had once tried to kill Nahas Pasha, now prime minister
of Egypt, because Nahas opposed the Green Shirts. "They put
him in jail for that," Moustafa said dolefully, while Izzed-een
watched me with his little, suspicious, red-rimmed eyes. "He
is willing to kill anybody who is an enemy of Misr el Fattat.
He is a very strong patriot."
"Will he kill me if he thinks I'm your enemy?" I asked
curiously.
Moustafa spoke to him, then turned to me and translated
his reply with a smile: "If he knows you to be a Jew or a spy,
he will not only kill you, but he will drink your blood."
With this comforting thought I left Misr el Fattat headquarters for a long night of note-making. I had to arrange
matters so I could go along to Palestine with Moustafa and
his men. There were thousands of these volunteers and adventurers from all the Arab countries, armed and financed by
pashas, sheikhs, or the Arab League, trained on Egyptian
army grounds by regular army officers on leave. Their role was
to harass the Jew, cut off his communications, isolate settlements, strip and weaken him for the moment, now only a few
weeks off, when the British would leave Palestine and the entire Arab world would declare a bloody, open season on the
Jew. Then the regular Arab armies would invade Palestine and
settle once and for all the impudent and fantastic Zionist
dream of a Jewish state on Arab soil.
Hussein had good news for me a few days later. Delighted