Summary 

Chapter Twelve 

Another Aliyah comes to Palestine in the wake of World War I, and Barak buys Jezreel—the biggest land purchase for Yishuv yet. Schools are built, a government is established, and the British build roads. The Yishuv Central is a representative body for the settlements, and Barak is elected to a role while he continues his work with the Zionists. Meanwhile, the British gain control over both newly formed Iraq and Trans-Jordan. Palestine is a different story, however. It cannot be controlled in the same way because the Balfour Declaration has been ratified.  

When the British ask the Palestinian Arabs to present their government, small groups begin to squabble. Haj Amin el Husseini of a powerful effendi family rises to power because he has the largest group of supporters. He installs himself as mufti of Jerusalem as part of his bid to rule over Palestinian Arabs. The attempted revival of the Jewish state is the biggest obstacle in his plan. He starts a pogrom targeting Jewish people, and Ruth and Akiva’s daughter are killed in the fighting. The Jewish people wait for the British to restore order, but no help comes. Haj Amin is pardoned by a commission of inquiry into the pogrom. Then the British begin severely limiting Jewish immigration. The new Jewish government discuss the situation and decide to forma a secret army, the Haganah.   

Chapter Thirteen 

More kibbutz begin springing up, and they are thriving. Eventually the moshav, or individual homes, are an option to the community life of the kibbutz. Kammal visits Barak and offers to sell him land that he has always admired if he will work with the Arab people to teach them how to tend the land. Barak accepts. He resigns his position at the Zion Settlement Society, and he and his family move to the new settlement Yad El and slowly reclaim the land. The settlement marks a unique partnership with Arab people, and it also causes new problems. The Arab people in surrounding areas fear that their people will want the education and democratic government that the Jewish people have established. Haj Amin begins stirring up stories about Jewish people desecrating the Dome, a holy place of Islam. The British respond by further limiting Jewish immigration.  

Chapter Fourteen 

Barak sends Ari to the miller one day when he is fourteen, and Ari is beaten up by some boys his age. Barak teaches Ari to use the bull whip and sends him out again. Ari returns to Yad El triumphant. All the Jewish children of the settlements are tough and know how to use weapons. They do not live in fear like their parents did. Many of them, including Ari, join the Haganah.  

Meanwhile, the British have allowed the mufti Haj Amin to grow powerful and he capitalizes on the German hatred of the Jewish people leading up to World War II. Even though the Jewish people are improving the Palestinian land, the British continue to give in to the threats of the Palestinian Arabs. But, the Yishuv have the Haganah, which has built up a tremendous army and an intelligence agency over ten years. They bring in illegal immigrants and gather weapons. Haganah is different from other armies in that it is one of restraint, but Akiva wants action instead of restraint. He has smoldered for years since his father’s death. Now, he mourns his wife and child as well. He gathers the most skillful Haganah soldiers and forms a staunchly militant group, the Maccabees. Barak argues that if Akiva strikes out with a small band on his own, he’s no better than the mufti. 

Chapter Fifteen 

Yad El is doing well under Barak’s supervision. It has running water and electricity. The young people of the settlement, including Ari and Dafna, the girl Ari loves, know their history as a people and of places that are important to the Jewish people. As the war nears and tensions rise, Ari and Dafna are kept apart. Ari is put in charge of assimilating Jewish people arriving in the latest German Aliyah of 1933–35. This one brings scientists and doctors who were the first to be persecuted in Europe.  

Haj Amin becomes even more dangerous, telling lies about and killing not only Jewish people, but British and Arab people as well. Kummal becomes one of Haj Amin’s victims. His son Taha lives with the Ben Canaans so that he remains safe. Meanwhile, the Maccabees are few in number, but ruthless. The Palestinian Arabs are afraid to attack Jewish settlements for a time. Then, Iraqi officer Kawukji arrives with an even more ruthless gang and helps Haj Amami. The British build forts during this time to patrol parts of Palestine, but they are too slow, and the forts do not prove to be helpful. During the turmoil, the Jewish people continue smuggling in immigrants and building settlements. Finally, Haj Amin’s violence becomes so bad that the British arrest him and he leaves Jerusalem.  

The British now recommend a two-state solution in Palestine. The Jewish people are tired of fighting and agree to this solution, but the Palestinian Arabs want all Jewish people to leave. Avidan and Ben Gurion command the Jewish forces, and they send a group to build a strategic kibbutz, Ha Mishmar. Sarah sees it as a suicide mission since this is where the Arab people will enter the Jewish settlements and do what they can to run Jewish people out. Ari and Dafna are among the young settlers.  

Analysis

Beginning in Chapter Twelve, the history of the hostility between the British and Jewish people is explored. The promise of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, crafted by the British, is unfulfilled. After World War I, the British begin taking steps that seem to be purposely detrimental toward the Jewish people. Most significantly from the Jewish perspective, the British have allowed Haj Amin el Husseini to rise to power. This is a serious threat to Jewish people in Palestine and changes the course of Palestine's history. In Haj Amin’s pogroms, the very terror that Jewish people escaped from in Europe has come to their beloved new home. The Jews are forced to respond, and they hold Great Britain partly accountable. However, even in the wake of the pogroms, Jewish leaders are torn regarding how to move forward with the British. The British are totally unreliable allies, if they can even be called that, but opposing the British openly and violently would start a war. Out of this difficult situation, the secret defensive army of the Haganah is born. It is a military organization devoted to restraint and only to take action in self-defense. The Jewish people of Palestine thus attempt to walk a very fine line by being prepared for armed conflict while being careful not to provoke it. For the time being, the pacificists and those who want to take more aggressive action are all satisfied. This is a turning point in the story, in that the Jewish people have lost their faith in the British to help them in any way and begin seeing them as an oppressor from which they need to defend themselves. It is also the point in the story where the decision about when and how to employ violent tactics comes to dominate politics amongst the Jewish community. 

Haj Amin’s brutal attacks cause Akiva to take drastic measures which place a wedge between him and Barak that will follow him to his grave. This dynamic is one that overshadows much of the novel. The mistreatment of Jewish people mounts until they feel compelled to take matters into their own hands, sometimes violently. Akiva represents the most extreme version of this dynamic. He is aggrieved beyond all reason or logic and has learned from years of mistreatment and tragedy that violence speaks loudest. For Akiva and many Jewish people during this time, the British failure to support or intervene on behalf of the Jewish people has become too much to stomach. The last straw for Akiva comes when, after continued pressure from Haj Amin, the British send the Royal Navy to set up a blockade of the Palestinian coast to stop Jewish immigration. Akiva can now no longer abide by the strict self-defense practiced by the Haganah. This highlights the brothers’ complete philosophical disagreement about how to approach the Jewish people’s future in Palestine and proves to be unresolvable. Barak begs his brother to see that if the Jewish people are divided, they are weakened, but Akiva is disgusted by having to keep asking the permission of the British for their freedom. Akiva will follow his conscious, even if it means losing his brother, convinced that he is acting justly in avenging thousands of years of destruction of the Jewish people.  

Chapter 15 sees the strong and intelligent Ari developing into a warrior, though he is able to maintain some emotional connection to people in the same way as Barak. Because he has so many skills and is a natural leader, Ari becomes an important member of the Haganah and Mossad Aliyah Bet, even though he is only seventeen. He is part of the first native generation of Palestine which gives up its youth for the safety of its land. When he and Dafna can get away, they get as far as they can from the stress and violence of their lives by attending music performances and visiting art exhibits. Ari also forges a strong friendship with Taja, Kammal’s son. In a time of peace, Ari would claim land at Yad El or another kibbutz and start a happy life with Dafna, but now, he is surrounded by violence. When Ari is asked to establish a kibbutz in a dangerous area, he accepts. This settlement will prove to be one of the first strategic successes for which Ari can take direct credit, but it will come at the cost of losing Dafna.