if they have a bomb, we have to have one too, don't
we?"
"If that was all there was to it, we could just hold a press conference,
announce that the Egyptians are making a bomb, and let the rest of the
world stop them. I think our people want the bomb anyway. I think they're
glad of the excuse."
"And maybe they're right!" Borg said. "We can't go on fighting a war every
few years-one of these days we might lose one."
"We could make peace."
Borg snorted. "You're so fucking naive."
"If we gave way on a few things-the Occupied Territories, the Law of
Return, equal rights for Arabs in Israel---~'
TRIPLE
'Me Arabs have equal rights."
Dickstein smiled mirtblessly. "You!re so fucking naive."
"Llstenr' Borg made an effort at self-control. Dickstein understood his
anger: it was a reaction he had in common with many Lu-aea They thought
that if these liberal ideas should ever take hold, they would be the thin
edge of the wedge, and concession would follow concession until the land
was handed back to the Arabs on a plate-and that prospect struck at the
very roots of their identity. "Listen," Borg said again. "Maybe we should
sell our birthright for a mess of potage. But this is the real world, and
the people of this country won't vote for peace-at-any-price; and in your
heart you know that the Arabs aren't in any great hurry for peace either.
So, in the real world, we still have to fight them; and if we're going
to fight them we'd better win; and if we're to be sure of winning, you'd
better steal us some uranium."
Dickstein said, "Me thing I dislike most about you i16 you're usually
right."
Borg wound down his window and threw away the stub of his cigar. It made
a trail of sparks on the road, like a firecracker. The lights of Tel Aviv
became visible ahead: they were almost them
Borg said, "You know, with most of my people I don!t feel obliged to
argue politics every time I give them an assignment. They just take
orders, like operatives are supposed to."
"I don7t believe you," Dickstein said. "116 is a nation of idealists, or
it!s nothing."
"Maybe."
"I once knew a man called Wolfgang. He used to say, 'I just take
orders.'Then he used to break my leg."
"Yeah," Borg said. "You told me."
When a company hires an accountant to keep the books, the first thing he
does is announce that he has so much work to do on the overall direction
of the company's financial policy that he needs to hire a junior
accountant to keep the books. Something similar happens with spies. A
country sets up an intelligence service to find out how many tanks its
neighbor has and where they are kept, and before you can say MI5 the
intelligence service announces that it is so busy spying on subversive
elements at home that a separate service is needed to deal with military
intelligence.
45
Ken Folleff
So it was in Egypt in 1955. The country's fledgling intelllgence service
was divided into two directorates. Military Intelligence had the job of
counting Israel's tanks; General Investigations had all the glamor.
The man in charge of both these directorates was called the Director of
General Intelligence, just to be confusing; and he was supposed-in
theory-to report to the Minister of the Interior. But another thing that
always happens to spy departments is that the Head of State tries to take
them over. There am two reasons for this. One is that the spies are
continually hatching lunatic schemes of murder, blackmail and invasion
which can be terribly embarrassing if they ever get off the ground, so.
Presidents and Prime Ministers like to keep a personal eye on such
departments. The other reason is that intelligence services are a source
of power, especially in unstable countries, and the Head of State wants
that power for himselL
So the Director of General Intelligence in Cairo always, in practice,
reported either to the President or to the Minister of State at the
Presidency.
Kawash, the tall Arab who
we?"
"If that was all there was to it, we could just hold a press conference,
announce that the Egyptians are making a bomb, and let the rest of the
world stop them. I think our people want the bomb anyway. I think they're
glad of the excuse."
"And maybe they're right!" Borg said. "We can't go on fighting a war every
few years-one of these days we might lose one."
"We could make peace."
Borg snorted. "You're so fucking naive."
"If we gave way on a few things-the Occupied Territories, the Law of
Return, equal rights for Arabs in Israel---~'
TRIPLE
'Me Arabs have equal rights."
Dickstein smiled mirtblessly. "You!re so fucking naive."
"Llstenr' Borg made an effort at self-control. Dickstein understood his
anger: it was a reaction he had in common with many Lu-aea They thought
that if these liberal ideas should ever take hold, they would be the thin
edge of the wedge, and concession would follow concession until the land
was handed back to the Arabs on a plate-and that prospect struck at the
very roots of their identity. "Listen," Borg said again. "Maybe we should
sell our birthright for a mess of potage. But this is the real world, and
the people of this country won't vote for peace-at-any-price; and in your
heart you know that the Arabs aren't in any great hurry for peace either.
So, in the real world, we still have to fight them; and if we're going
to fight them we'd better win; and if we're to be sure of winning, you'd
better steal us some uranium."
Dickstein said, "Me thing I dislike most about you i16 you're usually
right."
Borg wound down his window and threw away the stub of his cigar. It made
a trail of sparks on the road, like a firecracker. The lights of Tel Aviv
became visible ahead: they were almost them
Borg said, "You know, with most of my people I don!t feel obliged to
argue politics every time I give them an assignment. They just take
orders, like operatives are supposed to."
"I don7t believe you," Dickstein said. "116 is a nation of idealists, or
it!s nothing."
"Maybe."
"I once knew a man called Wolfgang. He used to say, 'I just take
orders.'Then he used to break my leg."
"Yeah," Borg said. "You told me."
When a company hires an accountant to keep the books, the first thing he
does is announce that he has so much work to do on the overall direction
of the company's financial policy that he needs to hire a junior
accountant to keep the books. Something similar happens with spies. A
country sets up an intelligence service to find out how many tanks its
neighbor has and where they are kept, and before you can say MI5 the
intelligence service announces that it is so busy spying on subversive
elements at home that a separate service is needed to deal with military
intelligence.
45
Ken Folleff
So it was in Egypt in 1955. The country's fledgling intelllgence service
was divided into two directorates. Military Intelligence had the job of
counting Israel's tanks; General Investigations had all the glamor.
The man in charge of both these directorates was called the Director of
General Intelligence, just to be confusing; and he was supposed-in
theory-to report to the Minister of the Interior. But another thing that
always happens to spy departments is that the Head of State tries to take
them over. There am two reasons for this. One is that the spies are
continually hatching lunatic schemes of murder, blackmail and invasion
which can be terribly embarrassing if they ever get off the ground, so.
Presidents and Prime Ministers like to keep a personal eye on such
departments. The other reason is that intelligence services are a source
of power, especially in unstable countries, and the Head of State wants
that power for himselL
So the Director of General Intelligence in Cairo always, in practice,
reported either to the President or to the Minister of State at the
Presidency.
Kawash, the tall Arab who
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