CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
1:10 p.m. Israel Time (5:10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time)
Beit Aghion – the Prime Minister’s Residence
Rehavia, Jerusalem
His confidence was shattered.
For the first time he could remember, perhaps for the first time in his life, he did not know what to do next. He spoke into the telephone, perhaps too harshly, to a young aide. The Americans were trying to schedule another call with their President Hopkins, and the aide had probably drawn the shortest straw—the one to ask Yonatan Stern when would be a good time to speak with the President of the United States, the so-called leader of the free world.
“No,” he said into the handset. “I will not talk to her until this crisis is over. And you tell them this for me, please. I want you to speak it word for word. Are you rea
