other committee members.” He looked around for support from the other eight members of the committee, who nodded encouragement, before continuing. “This whole operation will upset history as we know it, with unpredictable results. I am not sure that we should do it. Possibly when we go back to our own time we will not recognize the world and the changes may not be for the better.”
A Knesset member from a left opposition party added: “The basic premise for this operation strikes me as possibly racist and unfair. The other thing I am questioning is your intent to contact the Nazis. I don’t know how you can morally justify negotiating with those animals.”
The speaker finished and the room was quiet. Apparently the issues he raised troubled others as well.
Am os was surprised by this reaction to something he considered self-evident. The only explanation for this seeming opposition to a good plan was political maneuvering. Everybody was aware of the new coalition negotiations taking place and it was likely that all this posturing was just to ensure a better position in the upcoming national unity government. He relaxed. This was familiar territory and he knew how to deal with politicos, though it was shocking that at this time of emergency some people would continue with their petty political games.
“ I will not comment on how racist or unfair operation Moses may be. My personal opinion is that the question is political correctness drivel. The world never treated the Jews fairly. I’d rather leave this to future, or is it past, historians. The more important question is about changing the future. As of now, our scientists are not optimistic about our chances of going back to our own time. But even if we could, we need to ask ourselves if we should.
“ History has already been changed by our presence here. We had to shoot down several British planes. How soon do you think they will have their own jets flying, now that they know it’s possible? We used missiles to shoot down the Luftwaffe planes we encountered, so they will have no information – the pilots saw nothing and died in the encounters. We did not want to kill the British pilots and so used our jet’s cannon to shoot off their tails and give them a chance to escape. These pilots have probably seen something that, we have to assume, will be correctly interpreted by their experts. In our timeline the Germans had operational jets in 1944 and the Brits and Americans were not far behind. Even the least significant aspect of our technology will have unforeseen effects. If we go back now, it is likely that the world we return to will be generations ahead of us in technology and our edge over our enemies will not only be gone but we could be extremely vulnerable. It’s my humble opinion - and the consensus of the cabinet - that we should stay here as a superpower rather than go back and risk being destroyed. Here and now we have an advantage which we plan on maintaining. In any case, this is an issue for the Knesset to debate, or even for a referendum.”
“ Why the squeamishness about killing British pilots?” the chairman asked.
“ Since we hope to cooperate with them, sparing their pilots will make it easier. It was a show of both good will and air superiority, just like our help to them in Syria against Vichy. If they don’t understand this, we will make it clear soon. We’ve also assumed that it will be impossible to keep the existence of obvious technologies, such as jets, a secret from our allies, and they are, or will be, our allies. This shouldn’t be a problem in the short term – they won’t have the technological base to build a jet that will be anything close to even our old ones for many years. We do need to be diligent about keeping the less obvious stuff secret. The Brits, and everybody else, will try to insert spies, which will not be difficult with Operation Moses going. We have some ideas of how to lessen the dangers,
A Knesset member from a left opposition party added: “The basic premise for this operation strikes me as possibly racist and unfair. The other thing I am questioning is your intent to contact the Nazis. I don’t know how you can morally justify negotiating with those animals.”
The speaker finished and the room was quiet. Apparently the issues he raised troubled others as well.
Am os was surprised by this reaction to something he considered self-evident. The only explanation for this seeming opposition to a good plan was political maneuvering. Everybody was aware of the new coalition negotiations taking place and it was likely that all this posturing was just to ensure a better position in the upcoming national unity government. He relaxed. This was familiar territory and he knew how to deal with politicos, though it was shocking that at this time of emergency some people would continue with their petty political games.
“ I will not comment on how racist or unfair operation Moses may be. My personal opinion is that the question is political correctness drivel. The world never treated the Jews fairly. I’d rather leave this to future, or is it past, historians. The more important question is about changing the future. As of now, our scientists are not optimistic about our chances of going back to our own time. But even if we could, we need to ask ourselves if we should.
“ History has already been changed by our presence here. We had to shoot down several British planes. How soon do you think they will have their own jets flying, now that they know it’s possible? We used missiles to shoot down the Luftwaffe planes we encountered, so they will have no information – the pilots saw nothing and died in the encounters. We did not want to kill the British pilots and so used our jet’s cannon to shoot off their tails and give them a chance to escape. These pilots have probably seen something that, we have to assume, will be correctly interpreted by their experts. In our timeline the Germans had operational jets in 1944 and the Brits and Americans were not far behind. Even the least significant aspect of our technology will have unforeseen effects. If we go back now, it is likely that the world we return to will be generations ahead of us in technology and our edge over our enemies will not only be gone but we could be extremely vulnerable. It’s my humble opinion - and the consensus of the cabinet - that we should stay here as a superpower rather than go back and risk being destroyed. Here and now we have an advantage which we plan on maintaining. In any case, this is an issue for the Knesset to debate, or even for a referendum.”
“ Why the squeamishness about killing British pilots?” the chairman asked.
“ Since we hope to cooperate with them, sparing their pilots will make it easier. It was a show of both good will and air superiority, just like our help to them in Syria against Vichy. If they don’t understand this, we will make it clear soon. We’ve also assumed that it will be impossible to keep the existence of obvious technologies, such as jets, a secret from our allies, and they are, or will be, our allies. This shouldn’t be a problem in the short term – they won’t have the technological base to build a jet that will be anything close to even our old ones for many years. We do need to be diligent about keeping the less obvious stuff secret. The Brits, and everybody else, will try to insert spies, which will not be difficult with Operation Moses going. We have some ideas of how to lessen the dangers,
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