The Reckoning: How the Killing of One Man Changed the Fate of the Promised Land

The Reckoning: How the Killing of One Man Changed the Fate of the Promised Land
Patrick Bishop

From the bestselling author of ‘Fighter Boys’, the true story of two ruthless adversaries and a wartime killing that shook the modern world.On a cold, bright morning in February 1942, fugitive Avraham Stern was cornered in a flat in Tel-Aviv and shot dead. His killer, Assistant Superintendent Geoffrey Morton, claimed Stern was trying to escape. But Stern was no ordinary criminal. And witnesses insisted he was executed in cold blood.Stern was a militant Zionist, self-proclaimed Jewish liberator of British Palestine and mastermind of bloody terrorist attacks targeting and killing policemen. On the run from Morton, a British colonial policeman assigned to capture him, his shooting inspired a cult of martyrdom that would ignite enmities between Jews, British and Arabs in the future hotbed of Israel. The Reckoning is the first book to tell the tale of a rebel who terrorized Palestine, the lawman determined to stop him and the events that led to their fatal meeting.

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Contents

Cover (#u1f37500f-a91f-5d79-83e4-61058cdb79d3)

Title Page (#ulink_6b19545a-5ed1-525f-ba6d-4cf39d33f199)

Dedication (#ulink_c4e00b91-adbe-54ec-827c-8cf29741a46b)

Author’s Note (#ulink_a41da1a5-1de9-599b-a60a-148a50eabd23)

Glossary (#ulink_b8dba649-b725-58fc-b1c7-27553e971304)

Maps (#uf8d3c1f4-84ec-56a2-9427-39075f8e6c7b)

Prologue (#ulink_ccebc8c6-126a-5568-9988-61c88fd7deb1)

1 ‘There Are Few Who Do Good and Many That Do Evil’ (#ulink_77251d12-99e5-52fa-904b-2ead7f582240)

2 ‘This Was the Job for Me’ (#ulink_161c074e-4632-5eaf-9ece-5cbb9d5f6ad0)

3 ‘Let Fists Be Flung Like Stone’ (#ulink_b8fc1b40-1a8d-574f-b4d8-19a5b8002c99)

4 ‘A Soul for a Soul and Blood for Blood’ (#ulink_828a3616-7928-5c3b-9eb7-d72280fdc43c)

5 ‘And He Is a Rebel, Eager for the Storm’ (#litres_trial_promo)

6 ‘In the Underground’ (#litres_trial_promo)

7 ‘They Will Cover Your Memory with Spittle and Disgrace’ (#litres_trial_promo)

8 A ‘Trap for the British Brutes’ (#litres_trial_promo)

9 ‘Al-Ta’Amod!’ (#litres_trial_promo)

10 ‘It Doesn’t Matter If They Kill Me’ (#litres_trial_promo)

11 ‘Avraham, Avraham’ (#litres_trial_promo)

12 ‘The Blood of Your Brethren Is Calling to You from the Grave’ (#litres_trial_promo)

13 ‘Hatred Was Aflame in Their Hearts and the Need for Vengeance Burned’ (#litres_trial_promo)

14 ‘Terrorism Is an Infectious Disease’ (#litres_trial_promo)

15 ‘Striking a Blow against the Falsification of History’ (#litres_trial_promo)

16 ‘It’s Nothing Like the Truth’ (#litres_trial_promo)

17 ‘The Holy City’ (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

Notes (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)

Picture Section (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Patrick Bishop (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Dedication (#u21b5be86-c225-5173-a078-1ef42558f854)

IN MEMORY OF RICK BEESTON

AND

IAN MACKENZIE

Author’s Note (#u21b5be86-c225-5173-a078-1ef42558f854)

I have not tried to impose any orthodoxy on spellings of Jewish and Arab personal and place names, which inevitably vary in transliteration. To keep things simple I have left some as they appear in contemporary documents, while those that might seem confusingly archaic have been updated. In writing the story I found it had a habit of straying from the path to dart down some fascinating alleyway. To keep the narrative moving, I have sometimes explored these byways in the source notes. Consulting them may also help to answer questions arising from the text.

Glossary (#u21b5be86-c225-5173-a078-1ef42558f854)

Balfour Declaration

Statement issued by the British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour in November 1917 that the government favoured the idea that Palestine would one day be a ‘a national home for the Jewish people’.

Betar

Militaristic youth organisation of the Revisionist movement. Particularly strong in Poland.

Haganah

‘The Defence’. Militia founded in 1920 to defend ‘Jewish lives, property and honour’. Under the control of the left-leaning Zionist establishment.

Havlagah