By Way of Deception

BY WAY OF DECEPTION 113even four years. The katsas who ran them in Metsada were theonly link between them and their families. There was weeklycontact with the wives, and after a while the contact became morethan conversation, and they ended up having sex with the wives.This was the guy you trusted with your life, but you'd better nottrust him with your wife. You'd be in an Arab country, and he'd beseducing her. It was so common that if you asked to work forMetsada they used to say the question was, "Why, are you horny?"The rookies' stage show was called "The Shadows," and it was aspy story played completely behind three large screens, with lightsshining through to cast everything in silhouette. Because we wereto go on to become katsas, our faces couldn't be revealed to ageneral audience.The play opened with a belly dancer and the appropriate Turkishmusic, with a man carrying an attaché case passing by on thescreen. That was an inside joke. They say you can tell a katsa bythe three S's: Samsonite luggage, Seven Star (a leather-bounddiary), and a Seiko watch.The next scene showed a recruitment operation. Then there was askit about opening the diplomatic pouches, after which the sceneshifted to a London apartment with a man sitting in one roomtalking and in the next room (or, in this case, the next screen) asecond man with earphones listening in on the conversation.That was followed by the depiction of a London party, with Arabsin their headdresses shown in silhouette. They were all drinkingand becoming more and more friendly. On the next screen, akatsa was meeting with Arabs on the street. They were exchangingSamsonite cases.At the end, the entire cast walked up to the screens, joined hands,and sang the Hebrew song "Waiting for the Other Day," themusical equivalent of the old saying "Next year in Jerusalem," atraditional wish from Jews before the formation of Israel.Two days later we held a graduation party barbecue in the opengarden area of an inner court at the school, right next