Exodus

Dov and Karen get situated in their new home, a Youth Aliyah kibbutz in northern Palestine. Karen loves it, but Dov appears sullen and skeptical. Meanwhile, Ari brings Kitty to Jerusalem, where she meets Harriet Saltzman, an elderly American Jew who is the driving force behind the Youth Aliyah movement. Harriet speculates about the possible attraction between Ari and Kitty, but Kitty tells her that she is merely there to help as a nurse and to stay close to Karen.

Later, while David Ben Ami gives Kitty a tour of Jerusalem, Ari meets his uncle Akiva at a Maccabee site. Akiva accuses the Haganah of turning in Maccabees to the British, but then cools off and enquires about his brother Barak, as the two are still estranged.

Kitty and Ari leave for Galilee, in the north of Palestine. They come to Yad El, the home moshav of the Ben Canaan family, where Kitty is welcomed by the residents. Amid the quiet speculation about her relationship to Ari, Kitty also meets Ari’s sister Jordana, who greets her brother enthusiastically but is skeptical about Kitty.

They then proceed to another set of meetings. Kitty goes to Gan Dafna, where many of her Exodus children had been placed. Ari goes to talk with his father Barak about Akiva, and with his old friend Taha about Jewish-Arab relations, and neither conversation goes well.

Kitty, working at the Gan Dafna camp under the beneficent Dr. Lieberman, flourishes in her new role. Though her culture is different from that of the Jews, her efficiency is widely admired, and as the months pass her relationship with Karen deepens. Only with Jordana does she not get along, as Ari’s younger sister bristles over their contrasting views of femininity and over Kitty’s attachment to Ari. This doubles Kitty’s resolve to exercise an influence over Karen’s life, and not have her become a “sabra” girl (as the native-born kibbutzniks are known).

Ari takes Kitty to a reunion meeting of a Palmach group on the heights of Mount Tabor, from where they can view much of the surrounding countryside. Ari points out the historical significance of the sights: “You see, Palestine is the bridge of history here and you are standing on the center of the bridge” (368). As other Palmachniks arrive, the scene grows busier. David, Jordana, Joab, and Zev are all there, along with many others, and they sing and dance as dusk falls. Some couples break off from the group—as do Jordana and David, who make love on a blanket—and as dawn breaks Kitty is struck by just how different this army is than any other she has seen.

Cecil Bradshaw, the British official working on Middle East policy, reads bleak summaries of the state of the Palestine Mandate. He writes to General Haven-Hurst, currently in charge of Palestine, for his recommendations, short of which the whole matter would have to be referred to the United Nations.

Meanwhile, Brigadier Sutherland, now retired from the British army, buys a piece of property in Galilee and settles down. His old friend Caldwell visits, partially to test his sympathies. Caldwell is shortly revealed to be an antisemite inclined to genocide, and he abandons a Jewish teenager in an Arab village, where he knows the boy will be murdered. When Haven-Hurst’s recommendations arrive at Bradshaw’s office, they fall along the lines of Caldwell’s sentiments: A recommendation of brutal violence against the Jews. Bradshaw declines to take the recommendation and submits the Palestine Mandate to a UN review.

It is now the spring of 1947, and Kitty’s work at Gan Dafna has been going well. She continues to deepen her relationship with Karen, and also forms a friendship with Sutherland, who lives nearby. Despite her closeness with Karen, she is occasionally dismayed to see the extent of the girl’s attachment to Palestine, as she hopes to adopt her and take her back to America at some point in the future. In the midst of those fears, Kitty receives word that Karen’s father, Johann Clement, has been found.

Sutherland drives Kitty and Karen to Tel Aviv, ostensibly for a shopping trip, as Karen does not yet know the news. After shopping and a visit to the ballet, they go to see Karen’s father. Kitty tries to warn Karen that her father is not well, having been driven into a state of depressive psychosis after the experience of losing his family and undergoing torture from the Gestapo. He is almost entirely unresponsive to Karen’s pleas to recognize her.

With the effective loss of Karen’s father, Dov Landau realizes that Kitty and himself are the only two remaining people as close as family to the girl. Believing that Karen would fare better with Kitty, he removes himself by sneaking out of Gan Dafna and going to join the Maccabees. Kitty appeals to Ari to find Dov and bring him back, but Ari thinks it would be pointless, as it was Dov’s decision and likely works out better for Karen and Kitty anyway. Amid their conversations, the first they’ve had in several months, Ari and Kitty reconnect, and they make plans to get away together to the Sea of Galilee.

After visiting a few Christian pilgrimage sites near the Sea of Galilee, Ari and Kitty stay at a hotel in Tiberias. They go for a swim, and in the evening cross over to the Ein Gev kibbutz to attend a Beethoven concert.

After their return, the romance of the evening has taken its effect, and Kitty and Ari move toward making love, but Kitty pulls away at the last moment. Unwilling to invest the time for Kitty to disentangle all her conflicted feelings, Ari simply withdraws and is gone from the hotel by the time she gets up the next day.

Dov contacts a Maccabee agent in Jerusalem and is led to the group’s secret headquarters. Realizing his potential value to the group, they induct him with an oath and he chooses the name of a historical Jewish hero—Giora—after which he becomes known as “Little Giora.” At the same time, the Maccabees exercise retribution on Major Fred Caldwell for the death of the young boy left in an Arab village. Even as the British are torturing another young Maccabee, a girl named Ayala, Caldwell is lured away, abducted, and executed.

News of Caldwell’s execution demonstrates to the British that they are losing control in Palestine, a feeling that is reinforced after the Maccabees launch 14 days of raids in answer for Ayala’s death under torture. In response, General Haven-Hurst tries to pull off a terrorist act of his own, blowing up the headquarters of the Zion Settlement agency and the Yishuv Central. This drives the Haganah and Maccabees into an alliance, and in their reprisals they are able to trace and execute Haven-Hurst as he attempts to slip out for a late-night extramarital affair.

While all of this is going on, Barak Ben Canaan and his fellow diplomats are working hard to prepare for the UN visit to Palestine.

Up in Gan Dafna, Kitty tries to tell Karen about her desire to adopt her and move together back to America. The news shocks Karen, but the girl understands Kitty’s homesickness. Kitty decides to show Karen a letter that has come from Dov, in which he (also hoping to get Karen out to safety) repudiates their relationship and encourages her to leave. At this, Karen agrees to go with Kitty.

Due to his fearlessness and his forging abilities, Dov quickly becomes a favorite of the Maccabee leaders. They shift their hideouts regularly, but one such hideout inadvertently places them near a British surveillance team. Dov and Akiva are captured, and the Maccabees believe the Haganah has betrayed them to the British.

The two captured Maccabees are condemned to be executed, but a global public outcry against the British forestalls the sentence, and the British try to get Dov and Akiva to sign an official plea for mercy. They refuse, and the British are forced to schedule a date for the hanging.

Karen goes to Sutherland to see if he can get her access to visit Dov, who is being held in Acre jail. The British consent to the request, still hoping someone can get through to Dov and save them from the bad press of hanging a teenager. When they meet, Dov tries to act tough and convince Karen that he’s moved on, but his true feelings are too hard to hide, and he breaks down into tears as she leaves.

Meanwhile, Barak and his delegation work with the UN team, and Barak takes some time in the tour to meet with his son Ari, asking him to find a way to save Akiva.

Ari contacts the Maccabee leaders, Ben Moshe and Nahum, and although they distrust him for his Haganah connections, they agree to listen to his advice on how to break out Dov and Akiva. When the day of the hanging arrives, Maccabee agents and sympathizers filter quietly into Acre. By sneaking into a bathhouse that adjoins the jail wall, they blow it open and release the prisoners.

Street-fighting defenses throughout the city stall the British response, and Dov and Akiva are whisked away in separate escape cars. Akiva is riding in Ari’s escape car, but in trying to get around a British force on the road, their car is sprayed with bullets and both men are hit. By the time they reach safety in a Druze village, Akiva has passed away.

Kitty is in Gan Dafna, preparing for her departure, when a Druze messenger asks her to come help Ari, whose wound has left him incapacitated. Upon reaching the Druze village, she examines Ari, who has a bullet impinging on a nerve in his leg, which means it must be taken out. Ari convinces her that she must do it, because any doctor sympathetic to the Jews would be closely watched by the British at that moment. Though she doesn’t feel qualified, Kitty performs the surgery successfully.

Ari remains in significant pain, and Kitty stays in the Druze village to nurse him back to health. She is frightened, however, by the emotional power of her response to him, even after she has decided to leave Palestine. They talk again about their relationship, but it is clear they have very different ideas about the way romantic relationships are supposed to work. Kitty’s evaluation of Ari is harsh but honest: “You’re a mechanical animal, too infested with the second coming of the Israelites to be a human being. You don’t know the meaning of giving love” (463).

Kitty meets with Sutherland in Haifa, discussing the likelihood of a coming war in which the Jewish forces would be significantly outnumbered and under-equipped. Nevertheless, both hold out hope that the courage of the Jews will prevail.

The UN review of Palestine comes back with its report, recommending a plan of partition that would give both the Jews and Arabs their own states. The Jews agree, despite receiving a less-than-ideal allotment, but the Arabs say that partition would mean war. Kitty, finally faced with having to leave Gan Dafna, realizes that she is still emotionally connected to the children there, and she decides to stay.