The Mandelbaum Gate Passage

Pages 79 - 80

‘You see, you mustn’t,’ Matt said quietly, go round here alone. It’s a question of your Jewish blood.’

‘Nobody will know anything about my Jewish blood unless you talk about it.’

Freddy said, ‘Actually we’ve discussed your position in Jordan quite a bit. Because, you see, it’s more dangerous for you here than I thought it was. I intended to beg you not to come. Anyone with Jewish blood is automatically arrested as an Israeli spy.’

‘My passport’s all right,’ Barbara said. ‘I’d call for the British consul if there was any trouble.’

Their island was beginning to disintegrate. Having said his piece, Freddy felt, in reality, that Miss Vaughan was not in such danger as she had seemed to be in their imagination. Here she stood, calmly, in flesh and blood. As for her being, in fact, a spy . . .

‘I think it would be a bit unfair,’ Joanna said, ‘to involve the British consulate in an incident of that kind.’

‘Why?’ said Freddy. Perhaps it was the heat, or his age – he could not fathom it afterwards, although he had no regrets – but Freddy felt much the same irate urge to declare something at this moment as he had felt the day before in the shop when the woman customer was being tiresome with Alexandros. ‘Why, Joanna?’ he said. ‘Why shouldn’t she appeal to the consulate in the event of her being molested in a foreign country?’

‘It’s so much a matter between Arabs and Jews,’ Joanna said. ‘We can’t officially take sides, can we?’

‘It’s a blood-feud between Semites,’ Matt said, ‘that’s all it is.’

Joanna said, reproachfully, as if both men were at fault, ‘I’m sure this must be a very embarrassing conversation for Barbara.’

‘It doesn’t seem to be about me,’ Barbara said. ‘You are talking about a situation that’s outside the scope of the consulate.’

‘Won’t you sit down, Barbara, while we’re talking?’ Joanna said. ‘What I mean,’ she said to Freddy, ‘is that Barbara’s Jewish blood is outside official range, in a sense.’

‘Jewish blood or not,’ Freddy said, ‘the point is, it’s hers, and it has got to be protected by her country.’

‘Yes, well, to get back to the individual case,’ Matt said, ‘we know Ramdez. H’s a snooper for his government. He probably knows already about the Jewish part of Barbara’s origins, through his son in Israel.’

‘The son is a hostage, then,’ Barbara said.

‘Now I think that’s a bit unfair,’ Matt said.

‘There is too much talk,’ Barbara said, ‘Everything would be easy if people didn’t talk so much.’

‘Why is it unfair?’ Freddy said to Matt. ‘I think it’s a very good point. That Ramdez can’t very well move against Miss Vaughan while his son is in Israel. Young Abdul is a hostage.’

‘Because, mad as it sounds, Jewish blood is illegal here. I – Joanna and I – we think it’s a lunatic situation. But it seems a bit unfair of Barbara to tempt the law and risk involving a young Arab in Israel.’

‘The trouble with you,’ Freddy said, fully conscious and rather astonished that he was wrecking the delightful atmosphere, ‘is that you blow neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm – What was that passage in the Bible Miss Vaughan? Can you recall it? – It goes something like, you blow neither hot nor cold and I will spew thee out of my mouth. Something like that. Very apt.’