(This had a happy result. Since I was unable to perform even the most elementary tasks, a girl I hardly knew volunteered to move in with me for a week or so in order to help me. Her name was Rachel and she stayed with me until she died, 58 years later.)
The question was, who had sent the attackers? My first guess was Ariel Sharon, the commander of "Unit 101" which had just committed a terrible massacre in an Arab village called Qibya. My magazine had condemned the act.
Another guess was the Shin Bet, the secret service whose chief had a pathological hatred for me.
But then I got a secret message from Ze'evi, telling me that it was Moshe Dayan who was responsible. He warned me to take care. Ze'evi was the brother-in-law of a member of my staff. Dayan, the quintessential Arab-fighter, was already my deadly enemy.
REHAVAM ZE'EVI was a child of his time. Even his nickname was typical: at a high school celebration he had appeared wrapped in a bedspread, which made him look like the adored Indian leader. The nickname stuck. Ze'evi, a man of violence par excellence, was, of course, the very opposite of Gandhi.
In his teens he joined the semi-secret Zionist underground militia, the Palmach. In the 1948 war he was a combat soldier known for his physical courage but not much more. Later, as a battalion commander in 1951, he took part in the battle of Tel Mutilla against the Syrians, which was a disaster. Since then he did not command troops, but climbed steadily up the ladder of command, primarily, I think, because of his real organizational talent.
He was considered unreliable and undisciplined. Once he was stopped trying to cross the Jordanian border with the aim of freeing a soldier who had been captured there.
He was a member of the outstanding General Staff under the command of Rabin which won the stunning victory of the 1967 "Six-day War," but did not command any troops. But after the war, as chief of the Central Front Command, he took part in many manhunts.
These manhunts became a kind of sport. Arabs from the West Bank, who had fled across the Jordan River during the war, were trying to return home at night. Many were caught in army ambushes. The front commander was not supposed to be there, but Gandhi enjoyed it too much to stay away. He even invited his civilian friends -- actors, song-writers and other bohemians -- to join him in his helicopter. Those captured were killed on the spot.
When shocked soldiers reported this to me, I wrote to Rabin, who was still Chief of Staff. In an exchange of secret letters, he promised me to intervene.
At the time, I was a Member of the Knesset. When a concrete case of such a murder committed by Ze'evi came to my attention, I submitted a formal "motion for the agenda" against him. It was transferred to a secret committee hearing. Soon after, I received a secret communication from the new Chief of Staff, Haim Bar-lev, who was well respected as a decent officer. He informed me that an investigation had found that the killer in this case was not Ze'evi, but another officer who had since been killed in action.
OWING TO his special talent for self-publicity, Ze'evi was becoming a celebrity. In this "Time of Folly," as I called the delirious six years between the glorious 1967 "Six-day War" and the disastrous 1973 "Yom Kippur War," high-ranking army officers were treated as demi-gods. Ze'evi's antics were famous. One of them was having a live lioness grace his headquarters, to the delight of famous visitors.
It was then that his sexual relations with soldier-girls became known, without stirring much opposition. In last week's disclosures, these played a major role. Ze'evi, several women testified, forced himself on dozens of them, if not more, mostly girls under his command. Some were brutally raped.
The attitude to rape has radically changed in Israel over the years. Among men in the 1950s and 60s, it was considered more as a joke. "When she says No, what does she mean?" asked a famous song. The general view among men was that girls really "want it," but had to pretend otherwise for appearance's sake.
It was generally accepted in the army, that officers had the right to have sex with their female subordinates. It was one of the privileges of rank. In medieval times, nobles were supposed to enjoy a "droit du seigneur" or "jus primae noctis," the right to have sex with local women on their wedding night. (The accuracy of this story is in doubt.)
Officers believed that they had some such right. A famous saying, coined by the air force commander, ran: "The best men for flying, the best women for the flyers."
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