and jumped on Sarit again, this time sending the pair of them tumbling into the water where Gabrielle’s advantage in size was compounded by her strength built up through competitive swimming.
Less than a second later, Gabrielle’s powerful arms forced Sarit into a kneeling position and began thrusting her face under the water, choking the life out of her.
Daniel was about to intervene, but then he saw something that filled him with terror.
Less than fifty yards away, Goliath had rallied his strength and was now limping slowly forward once again towards the water’s edge a few yards away. In a matter of seconds, he would be in a position to drop the shroud into the water and it would be the end of the State of Israel and its people: Jews and Arabs.
Daniel knew that the danger to Israel outweighed the danger to Sarit and he did the only thing he could do. He sprinted towards Goliath.
The giant turned round just in time to see Daniel closing the last few yards and although he could have thrown the shroud in the water quite easily, a sense of anger and pride prompted him to turn to Daniel instead to fight him.
Daniel threw himself on to Goliath and tried to wrestle him to the ground, but even though Goliath was wounded, he was still too strong. The giant tried to get him in one of his infamous headlocks but the one thing Daniel had going for him was that he had the inside position. This made it harder for Goliath to work his set piece.
More importantly, Daniel noticed that Goliath had dropped the shroud.
Realizing that his own life too was less important than that of a nation, he put his foot on the shroud and with a scraping motion kicked it backwards so that it was behind both of them.
Sarit’s lungs were filling up with water and she could feel her consciousness slipping away. Her head was thrashing this way and that as she struggled to come to the surface. Somehow she managed to force her head above water long enough to take a breath, but first she had to expel the water from her lungs. She coughed and choked and sputtered, spurting out some of the water, but not all of it.
And as she drew in her breath, the strong hands and arms of Gabrielle forced her under the water yet again. This time, she managed to hold her breath and not take in any more water. But she didn’t know how long she could hold out. She had been well aware, throughout this assignment, that Goliath was a dangerous adversary. But now as she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness, she remembered that Gabrielle was a former competitive swimmer.
Think, Sarit, think!
Sarit was half a head shorter and not nearly as strong. But she was trained. Suddenly, all her training came back to her. Instead of her futile, feeble efforts to pull Gabrielle’s hands away, she realized she needed to do an inside sweep. The problem was that she was practically kneeling and couldn’t get the leverage.
Nevertheless, she clenched her fists, inserted her arms inside Gabrielle’s grip and swept upward and outward with an almighty thrust. Despite the power of the move, it failed to break Gabrielle’s grip, accomplishing at most a slight loosening of the assailant’s fingers. But that was enough. It made Sarit realize that she had a second line of attack.
Lightning fast, she delivered a vicious punch between Gabrielle’s legs. A cry of pain went up from the Austrian woman and at the same time her grip slackened. That was all the opportunity Sarit needed. In a split second, she grabbed Gabrielle’s hair and pulled her head forward and downward. At the same time, forcing herself against the pressure of Gabrielle’s mighty hands, she managed to lift her own head to deliver a vicious head butt, breaking the blonde’s nose.
Gabrielle screamed in pain and anger, for a second time releasing her grip to clutch her broken nose. Sarit leapt to her feet and they stood there eyeball to eyeball in the shallow water. But Sarit realized that she was now in even greater danger.
Wounded animals are the most vicious.
Despite his best efforts Goliath was slowly gaining the upper hand. Daniel realized that any minute now, Goliath would have him in a hold that would enable him to snap his neck. Desperate to get free, he smashed his elbow into Goliath’s ribcage four or five times in rapid succession.
Already in pain from his gunshot wounds, Goliath’s grip slackened and Daniel was able to push Goliath’s left arm away long enough to duck out of the headlock without breaking his neck. He twisted away sharply and took a stride towards the shroud in the hope of throwing it clear even further, but Goliath twisted round too and dived at him, catching his leg and bringing him down.
Daniel twisted on to his back to free his leg, scooping up the shroud in one hand. But as he retracted his legs and tried to push himself on to his feet, Goliath rose up again and was now poised to dive on top of him, pinning him to the ground.
Meanwhile, Sarit had kept her cool. With Gabrielle clutching her bloody nose, she was momentarily defenceless. Sarit seized upon the opportunity by forming a double-handed grip and delivering a vicious chop to the side of Gabrielle’s head, sending her reeling.
Quick as a flash, Sarit took two awkward strides through the shallow water and jumped on Gabrielle from behind. Her plan was to get the blonde into some kind of full nelson and hold her face down on the ground. Unfortunately Gabrielle was too quick and managed to twist away, tearing her shirt in the process.
Gabrielle had only been momentarily dazed by Sarit’s unexpectedly effective resistance and now, with renewed strength, she charged at Sarit sending the pair of them reeling and tumbling on to the riverbank where they tore and clawed at each other. Eventually superior strength won out and Gabrielle ended up straddling the hapless Sarit.
Then lights appeared to shine at them out of nowhere.
Gabrielle looked up to see a jeep filled with soldiers. They seemed to be amused by the sight of these two women fighting. Then Sarit took the opportunity to reach up and claw at Gabrielle’s eyes. The bigger woman let out a scream and staggered backwards as Sarit leapt to her feet with the last of her strength and pointed to Gabrielle.
‘ Hee mehabelet! ’ she shouted, meaning, she’s a terrorist. Unsure of what to do, but hearing no words of dispute from the bigger woman, the soldiers ran towards them to separate them. Sarit, struggling to regain her breath and composure, half-turned and pointed to Daniel and Goliath.
A malicious smile graced Goliath’s lips as he prepared to dive on to Daniel, crushing him beneath his weight. But Daniel had one last trick up his sleeve. His hand groped on the ground for the rock that he had seen nearby. Finally he found it and just as Goliath realized what was happening, Daniel’s hand shot out sending the rock smashing into Goliath’s face with a velocity that Daniel did not think possible.
The big man let out a cry of pain that sounded like thunder in the night and then fell backward, unconscious.
Seconds later, Daniel got to his feet, holding the shroud and praying that it had not got damp during the incident. Sarit and two of the soldiers came running over.
Ignoring the potential danger from the shroud, Sarit approached him.
‘You got it wrong, Daniel. It’s supposed to be David who uses a stone to defeat Goliath, not Daniel.’
He smiled.
‘I guess we’ll have to rewrite the Bible.’
Epilogue
A couple of weeks later, on the morning of 19 May, Daniel was in the Old City of Jerusalem at the Western Wall, celebrating Shavuot, the Jewish festival that commemorates Moses receiving the Torah.
There were several congregations there, each with their own rabbi. The Wall was not a synagogue, but a place where individuals or groups could pray. Anyone can visit the Wall, but once he had put a kippa on his head and a talis round his shoulders, he had effectively identified himself as a Jew and was promptly invited to complete a minyan or quorum of ten men required by Jewish religious law for group prayers.
Sixty feet above them, on what Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call Haram ash-Sharif, devout Muslims were praying in the Dome of the Rock and al-Aksa Mosque as well as kneeling on their prayer mats in
