With each explosion, the occupants of the ultra secure room had flinched, perfectly safe but feeling the pain of each explosion. This was happening on their watch.
As the news cameras rushed across the country, the scale of the attack unfolded. The TV screens in the Cabinet Office ran the images as phones rang and updates flooded in. Every target was the same. The monstrousness of the attack was overwhelming. Two hundred buses carrying the youngest and most vulnerable members of society had been bombed. Survivors on the buses were few and far between and those who had survived were unlikely to live a normal life. Within the hour, the death-toll was already in the thousands. The overwhelming force of the explosions on each of the buses was staggering. The death-toll of passers-by began to exceed that of the bus passengers. This was a co-ordinated attack on a massive scale, even surpassing that of 9- 11.
At 8 p.m., twelve hours after the initial explosion, the Prime Minister called the meeting to order, not that any order needed to be called. The Cabinet Room was deathly silent, despite its inflated numbers. Deputies and assistants lined the walls as the Cabinet gathered round a large conference table in the center of the room.
“David, can you please give us the update,” asked the Prime Minister, turning to his Defense Minister, David Hirsch.
As the Minister of Defense got to his feet, the cabinet door opened and the President of Israel, Ehud Rabin, entered the room, nodding to the Prime Minister and looking for an empty seat against the wall.
“Please Ehud, sit next to me,” offered the Prime Minister, motioning for an assistant to move a chair next to him. The President nodded his assent and took the seat next to Chaim.
As with many elected presidents who inherit prime ministers of a different political party, the two men had fought publicly for years and had split the allegiance of the Cabinet between them. However, this was a message to the Cabinet, from the two master politicians of Israel, that petty differences were to be set aside. Israel was to be united. The President nodded for David Hirsch to continue.
“This Morning was the first day of term for a new school year. At approximately 7.58 a.m., a primary school bus in Jerusalem exploded, killing everyone on board. By 8.06 a.m., over 200 bombs, all targeting primary school buses, had exploded across the country. Casualty figures are changing by the second but as of five minutes ago, the numbers stood at 4,237 confirmed dead and over 10,000 injured. Over 2,000 of those are critical. Despite the chaos, our infrastructure is holding its own. Hospitals have initiated emergency procedures and field hospitals have been erected. The armed forces are on high alert.”
As the Defense Secretary paused for a moment, the room remained silent. The scale of the attack began to hit home.
After a few seconds, a quiet voice came from the head of the table.
“How?” asked the President.
“We’re not entirely certain yet. The bus depots are highly secure and as such, there is no way the devices were planted before they left for the school run. The bus drivers are all security trained and armed. Suicide bombers would have been repelled and certainly would not have succeeded 200 times within ten minutes.”
“So how?” asked the President in a whisper, the tone of his voice conveying his utter dismay and fury.
“It is unconfirmed but…” David paused as he thought about the horror of what he was about to say and whether it really could be true.
“Yes?” prompted the President regaining some volume.
“There is speculation that the attack was in fact by suicide bombers. Except that the bombers may have been unaware of their actions. Perhaps the term
David paused. He could see that some understood what he was saying but others were struggling, either because they were slow or more likely, their brains could not comprehend or refused to compute the possibility of what may have happened.
“Two hundred families have completely disappeared,” he added, seeing more of those in the room piece together the evidence. “We believe they may have been planted here to commit this atrocity.” He paused again as even he could not believe the words he was uttering. “Or more accurately, the bombers were raised within our own communities for the sole purpose of being sacrificed today.”
“Are you seriously suggesting the bombers were children?” asked the Prime Minister.
“Yes. It looks like these were children who we believed to be our own but in fact were the sons and daughters of infiltrators, frauds, brought here as supposed Jewish immigrants, destined only to attack us and destroy us from within.”
“So two hundred families posing as Jews have raised their children within our communities to carry out today’s attack using their six-year-olds, packed with explosives, as bombs??!!” asked the President.
“It appears so,” confirmed David, looking as though the weight of the world had collapsed on his shoulders.
With silence descending on the room again, the feint sound of raised voices could be heard through the almost sound-proof Cabinet doors.
Chaim Goldman got up and opened the door to find his Head of Security tussling with an old man. As the Cabinet watched the bizarre scene, the Prime Minister tried to separate the two men.
“Avi, get your hands off me!” shouted the old man.
“I’m sorry, Sir…” replied Avi, with the utmost deference. “But you can’t…”
“Avi, it’s OK,” said the Prime Minister, recognizing the old man. “Ben,” he said acknowledging Ben Meir, a man known to every Israeli and highly respected. He still had great influence in Israel and was the main reason Chaim and Ehud held the offices they currently held.
“What the hell are you doing?” asked the Prime Minister.
“Still showing this old bastard I can take him,” he said pointing towards Avi, thirty years his junior and almost twice his size. “I need to talk to you and this was the quickest way.”
“OK Ben but things are critical right now, we’re just getting our heads around…”
“I understand but I need to see you, Ehud and David immediately. Whatever you’re doing can wait until we’ve spoken.”
“But Ben, we need to respond…”
Ben reached up and took hold of Chaim’s shoulder and looked into his eyes. “I need to speak to you, Ehud and David,
Despite the fact that Ben Meir had not held office for fifteen years, when he spoke, people listened. Within minutes, he had taken control of events and stood in the Cabinet Office with a Prime Minister, a President and a Defense Minister wondering what the hell had just happened. Ben picked up the phone and barked a number of instructions to whoever was on the other end. The three most powerful men in Israel simply looked on helplessly.
The room remained silent while Ben’s orders were carried out. Ehud and Chaim had tried to talk but on each occasion a simple “hush” from Ben had stopped them dead.
Eventually, the door opened and four men entered the room. The Head of Mossad (the Israeli intelligence service), the Head of The Shabak (more commonly known as Shin Bet, the Internal Security Service) and Israel’s two Chief Rabbis.
Chaim, Ehud and David looked at each other as the four men entered the room. The first two men were not unexpected but the two Chief Rabbis were a surprise. They all knew Ben’s stance on retaliatory attacks — hit fast and hit ten times harder.
After a quick round of greetings, Ben stood up. This was his Israel and this time, they had gone too far. He reached down to his old attache case, took out a battered old folder and placed it on the table in front of them.
“Gentlemen,” he began. “Today, the terrorists have gone too far. Above all else, it is our duty to protect the children of Israel.” Ben paused as he let the words reverberate around the room. “Gentlemen, what we discuss here today can never leave this room.” Ben waited for nods from each of the attendees and only then pushed the folder to the center of the table.
“I give you Project Ararat.”
