"Kebab was brought up religious," I remind him. "And Zuzik too, I think."
"What has that got to do with it?"
"Can’t you see what that means? If a man like Kebab can kill every Fellah on the road and at the same time be religious, then screw religion!"
"All that shows is that our religion is corrupt. But that also shows that we need a new religion! One that forbids us from killing Fellaheen and prisoners and camels..." He suddenly begins to laugh. "Oh really, I didn’t know that I was religious. We are all going mad here!"
"I read somewhere that a man becomes religious when he feels that he is going to die," I console him.
* * *
We walk back to the collecting point. Maybe there will be new mes-sages on the radio. Our comrades are still lying on the ground. No one wants to listen to the news. We are afraid of what we might hear.
I discreetly look at the time. Still two hours to go. Jamus gets out some biscuits which we chew slowly just for something to do. The minutes creep by. Our comrades also glance secretively at their watches. To cover that up, they stretch or scratch their arms. And smile stupidly when they notice that they have been observed.
From Manzuva, which our comrades captured yesterday, we hear shots. Suddenly our watches are in front of us. As if by command. We cannot lie to ourselves any longer. Our eyes follow the hands. We are no longer thinking of anything else. Ceasefire or no ceasefire. Ceasefire. Ceasefire or no ceasefire ...
Six thirty, six forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven. Still thirty, twenty, ten seconds - six forty-eight...
At Manzuva heavy firing has broken out. Mortars and artillery - it sounds as though all the weapons of the front have been collected there. Our hopes rise. That could be a good sign. Five minutes before the first ceasefire the Egyptians began a tremendous barrage. An Arab "fantasia." Maybe they just want to show us that they haven’t agreed to a ceasefire out of weakness. But this time they are not shooting in the air. The shells are falling within our lines. In Manzuva and in the neighboring kibbutz. And the damned aircraft have returned and are searching. We lie on the ground like the dead.