Raisins and almonds - Poisoned Pen Press (UK)

Raisins and Almonds 1
her some thin tea. Phryne did not look for milk or sugar. She opened
her cigarette case and offered the company a gasper.
They all accepted.
‘I’ve been hearing about Zionism,’ she began.
‘From Simon?’ asked David Kaplan incredulously. ‘You’ve
been hearing about Zionism from Simon? You’ve been hearing
about Zionism from Simon?’
‘Why not?’ asked Phryne. ‘Doesn’t he know about it?’
‘Simon is a theorist,’ scoffed Solly Kaplan.
‘And you’re not?’ Phryne decided that this was going to be
one of those robust debates and returned the ball briskly.
‘We are for Practical Zionism. These governments—they will
not listen to us. The best argument is force,’ snarled Isaac Cohen.
‘Force? Hasn’t enough blood been shed? Besides, the armies
of Zion, whoever heard of such a thing? Jews do not fight,’
objected Simon.
‘No, we just die,’ snapped Abraham Kaplan. ‘What do you
mean, Jews do not fight? Have we not been in armies? Have
we not won the Croix de Guerre and the Iron Cross and the
Victoria Cross?’
‘Not all at once. There will always be brave men. But you are
not talking about a country, with a government and an army and
borders on a map. We have no country,’ said Simon.
‘We should take one, then.’ Isaac Cohen was thin and his
liquid eyes seemed designed for love-making, not war.
‘You are still of the opinion that we should declare war on
the Arabs and take the land?’ asked Simon.
‘I am. And if we reach the medicine of metals, we shall win
a country of our own where no Jew need cower.’
‘That’s the lapis philosophorum,’ said Phryne, who recalled the
phrase. ‘You’re talking about finding the universal solvent.’
Five pairs of eyes looked at her. She looked back.
‘What do you know of such matters?’ asked Solly Kaplan.
‘ “Tis a stone and not”,’ quoted Phryne with Ben Jonson.
‘ “A stone; a spirit, a soul, and a body. If you coagulate it, it is
coagulated. If you make it flie, it flieth.” ’