This One!

Book excerpt: This One! is a personal report by journalist and former Reuters correspondent Alec Aylat. Replete with scores of amusing anecdotes, it portrays a man with five (and a half) identities and a wry sense of humor, who has decided to reveal all. Recent reviews: in the nationally circulated monthly "Hadassah Magazine" (Feb. 2002 issue): "Aylat tells his story with wit and insight.... A good and funny memoir." In the New Jersey Jewish News (Jan. 22, 2002): "The value of Aylat ́s work lies in his hilarious recollections of life in Israel." Now also an historical document, This One! is in the library of the Palmach museum in Tel Aviv. (The Palmach was the striking force of the pre-state Haganah). This One! covers the author’s youth in Scotland, his dramatic role with the BBC in England, service with the Jewish Brigade Group of the British Army in World War II and the actions of the underground Haganah in the Brigade in spiriting displaced Jews to Palestine, his participation in Israel’s struggle for independence, and his provocative activities in Israel, Canada and America. This One! opens in a kibbutz in pre-state Israel where he is known by a name other than his original Scottish one. It already is his third identity which he will change yet again. Aylat ́s report covers his joust with the Admiralty in London, his years as partner, creative director and copywriter in Israel’s leading advertising agency, and his acting career, the latter experience saving him from a court-martial. Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel he is shot at by Arab marauders, besieged by Arabs in his kibbutz and goes to the defense of another kibbutz under Arab attack. He participates in the founding of a new kibbutz at dead of night in British Mandatory Palestine, and describes the Haganah ́s planning, work and deception which go into building an illegal bridge across the River Jordan. His detailed revelations of the infamous “Black Sabbath” operation, in which he was involved, when the Mandate’s army and police forces raided Jewish homes in towns and kibbutzim, arresting thousands of men and women, discloses incidents never before made public. As a newspaperman he covers events in Israel’s capital and goes to the U.S. where he lectures for Israel ́s information office. He returns to Jerusalem where he chases a monkey through the streets of the capital, and is suspected of spying by Israel’s Shin Bet. His aliases mount as he switches identities to conceal his past and his present. Now a marketing strategist, he is sent to Canada for a two-year stint on behalf of Haifa University, and goes back to the U.S. to foster good relations between the AFL-CIO and Israel’s labor federation. Reporting on the local New Jersey community near Princeton, where he is living and commuting between Israel and the States, he writes satirical articles, and brings This One! to its incredible conclusion.