charge and he will learn that lesson soon.” Fazzi said. “Is that the only problem?”

“Yes it is. I just wanted to warn you of it and also to find out about the bazaar and how it went.”

“Thank you for the warning and we will take care of it. Like I said the bazaar went off beautifully. Everyone here is pleased, but Yussef is most impressed with you. I have been telling him that I was thinking of appointing you as his assistant in the fund.”

“What does he think about that?”

“He is very pleased and says that if your actions on the Ibrahim situation was any indication of your abilities, he would be honored to have you on board.” Fazzi said, “and I think the two of you would make a good team. By the way I have officially adopted him as my son and legal heir.”

“Fazzi, Excellency, I beg of you, can I please speak plainly?”

“Yes. I told you when you came to work for me that I want my operatives to feel that they can always feel free to talk to me. It is what makes a good system.”

“Yes I remember that, but since you have already adopted him, I am still respectfully asking the question. Are you sure you want to do that? He is still an outsider.”

“Yes, but I will have time to work on him. I believe he is coming around. You must remember that some of our most dedicated and best people have been 'outsiders', as you put it. Yussef and this last incident have convinced me that we have been somewhat wrong in our methods.”

“Wrong? How so?”

“You know the old saying, 'more is gained with honey than vinegar'. For over a thousand years we have waged war against the infidel. What we gained, we only later lost.” Fazzi said. “ For example, someone once said that if we had accepted the original partition plan for Palestine offered us in 1947, it would have created an unworkable Jewish State that would in time have fallen apart and disappeared from the map. If we had used one tenth of the money that we wasted on wars to educate and train our people as the Jews did, then by this time we would have been in charge of the entire country. And we could have done this without the loss of life and treasure.”

“Are you saying that we should surrender to the infidels?”

“Never!” he said violently. “And if you ever say I did, I will kill you with my own two hands. But, as a leader, I must consider all sides of a question or an action. Our problem is that we have never used our heads. We were and are ruled with our emotions and the new leadership is going to have to change its methods. There was one farsighted Arab politician who knew this, but instead of listening to him, we assassinated him.”

“Who was that?”

“Field Marshal Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat.”

“But Sadat was a traitor to the Arab cause.”

“No, my dear Allie, not a traitor. He and later King Hussein were the only Arab leaders to win back Arab land. Both won it by waging peace. They changed the world's conception of Arab leaders. Before them we were all imprinted by the vision of that gun-toting idiot, Arafat, standing