Well, everyone was getting along just fine. Julia is in Israel, Doug is working as a restaurant manager, my practice is growing, and Maxine is getting to be a first rate tennis player, and Julie’s six month work on the kibbutz is over and she has moved to join a kibbutz in the Southern part of Israel called the Negev, a now-fertile area in the desert which neither mother, father or brother ever heard of, when mother gets a call from Julia- not asking to come home, but just the opposite. Julia calls. “Mom” she says, “I really like it here and I am going to apply for citizenship as I can have dual citizenship and that also makes me eligible to be drafted into the Israeli Army.” Hold on,” Mom says, “We are coming over to talk about such a move. Please don’t do anything until we get there.” Arrangements are made; mother and brother will go right away, but I was in trial and would have to come later.
I was in trial against Lew Rosenblum, who I think I mentioned earlier. Lew was a tough prosecutor trying to convict my client of attempted murder. Th actions, as presented by the DA were, my client was married (conveniently was arranged by his wife’s Iranian family) and was charged with stalking his wife’s lover aided by her family, by hiding out near the carport of the condominium where the wife’s lover lived. The lover came home, parked his car, started walking down a pathway, was confronted by the husband/client, where client accosted lover-boy with a gun intending to demand the affair be finished. There was a problem. Lover-boy pulled a knife and as the two men struggled with each other, lover-boy stabbed client in the back superficially wounding my client. Lover-boy then ran down the pathway and claimed my client chased him, eventually getting on top of lover-boy and deliberately pointed the weapon at him and shot lover-boy and left. I don’t think that is what happened, and they gave me some facts to disprove the story. The bottom line was this just didn’t happen. I was able to prove through testimony and a gunshot expert that lover-boy was shot when the two tussled, the gunshot actually occurred when lover-boy stabbed client in self defense and lover-boy’s wound entered the back of the victim and exited the front. The jury bought my presentation and found client not guilty. As I have said before, why do DAs use the “victim’s” version when the acts show otherwise. On this case, I was waiting for the shoe to drop and have the DA argue the wound occurred while the victim was running away, and blood splatter evidence would corroborate that act that client shot lover-boy in the back while he was running away. If the DA had presented his case asking the jury to disregard the lover’s version, but go on the acts and blood splatter evidence, there was a good chance I would have lost. Anyway, as soon as the jury returned its verdict, I hightailed it to LAX, Los Angeles International Airport to grab an SAS, Scandinavian Airlines, to Copenhagen, Denmark and from there on El Al, the Israeli Airline to Tel Aviv, Lod Airport.
It was an interesting first leg flight. It was Christmas Eve, the plane was not full, good seatmates, fine food and drinks, but bad weather. Blizzard conditions in Denmark, but I guess the Scandinavian pilots are used to it because we landed perfectly and safely. Next, we hustled to a secured waiting area where passengers to Israel and also Ireland were kept secure and eventually shuttled to the Israeli plane isolated somewhere on the tarmac where the Israeli plane was located. My thought at the time was “I hope the men working on a Jewish plane on Christmas wouldn’t be pissed off and be lax in their efforts. They weren’t. From there to Zurich, picked up some passengers, and then to Israel.
Plane lands at Lod, without incident, but looking out the window of the plane I see armed vehicles and tanks surrounding the plane, and, as I disembarked, I commented out loud about the soldiers surrounding the plane, and this young soldier looks back at me and said “Yes, but we are your soldiers.” I’ll never forget the feeling that came over me. I now know how my Orange County Irish pals, Jim Enright, Jack Ryan and others must have felt when they visited their “Old Sod,” Ireland. However, for me, a young man during World War 2 and never before knowing such a thing as a Jewish soldier meant to protect me, it was an incredible feeling.
It was a special day and night, Christmas Eve and day, Hanukkah and a Muslim holy day all at once. The passengers were all given jelly rolls to commemorate the holidays. After going through customs and tight security, I left the confines of the terminal and waiting to greet me was wife, daughter and brother. Hugs and then the drive to Jerusalem.
Lots more to come in part 3
Marshall
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