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Israel and the Cyber Threat
 Israel and the Cyber Threat

How the Startup Nation

Became a Global Cyber
Power

CHARLES D. FREILICH, MATTHEW S. COHEN, AND GABI

SIBONI
 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s
objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a
registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New
York, NY 10016, United States of America.

© Oxford University Press 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford
University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the
appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of
the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above.

You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any
acquirer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Freilich, Charles D. (Charles David),

author. |
Cohen, Matthew S., author. | Siboni, Gabi, author.
Title: Israel and the cyber threat : how the startup nation became a global cyber power /
Charles D. Freilich, Matthew S. Cohen, Gabi Siboni.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2023] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022038833 (print) | LCCN 2022038834 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780197677711 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780197677728 (epub) | ISBN 9780197677742 (online) Subjects: LCSH: Cyberspace
operations (Military science)—Israel. | Cyber intelligence (Computer security)—Israel. |
Cyberspace—Government policy—Israel. | Cyberterrorism—Israel—Prevention. |
Cyberinfrastructure—Israel. | National security—Israel.
Classification: LCC U167.5.C92 F74 2023 (print) | LCC U167.5.C92 (ebook) |
DDC 355.4/75694—dc23/eng/20221020
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022038833
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022038834

DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197677711.001.0001
 CONTENTS

List of Figures, Tables, and Maps

Acknowledgments
Author Bios
List of Abbreviations
Prologue

Introduction

PART I MY HOME IS NO LONGER MY CASTLE: THE GLOBAL CYB

ER THREAT
1. Understanding the Global Cyber Threat
2. Primary Cyber Attacks around the World
3. Goldilocks and Other Cyber Quandaries

PART II WAR BY OTHER MEANS: THE CYBER THREAT TO ISRAEL

4. The Overall Cyber Threat to Israel
5. The Iranian Cyber Threat

PART III A NAPKIN THAT CHANGED HISTORY: ISRAEL’S CYBER R

ESPONSE
6. Strategic Culture and National Security Strategy
7. The Civil Cyber Strategy
8. National Capacity Building
9. International Cyber Cooperation
10. The Military Cyber Strategy

PART IV THE WAY FORWARD

11. Conclusions—and Some Answers to the Cyber Quandaries
12. A Comprehensive National Cyber Strategy

Appendix: Common Types of Cyber Attacks

List of Interviews
Notes
Bibliography
Index
 FIGURES, TABLES, AND MAPS

Figures
I.1 Malware Peaks and Political Developments
I.2 Metcalf’s Law
1.1 Cyber Threats by Motivation
7.1 Cyber Decision Timeline
10.1 Israel’s Cyber System

Table
7.1 The Concept of Operations

Maps
6.1 Israel (1967 Borders)
6.2 The Middle East in Context
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We wish to warmly thank a number of people for their invaluable support

for this book, without which it would never have been written, certainly not
at its current level of quality.
First, Prof. Eviatar Matania, the founding Head of the Israel National
Cyber Directorate and current Director of the Security Studies Program at
Tel Aviv University, for his professional guidance in writing this book and
for the repeated interviews he granted us. His own book on Israel and cyber,
which came out fortuitously just as were concluding ours, was an
invaluable source.
We were extraordinarily fortunate to have had high-level access to many
if not most of the senior officials involved in Israel’s civil and military
cyber realms in recent years. A list of interviewees is attached in the book’s
appendix. The list is far too long to thank each and every one of them
individually, but we are truly grateful that they shared our belief in the
importance of the book and were so very generous with their time.
Thanks to Professors Graham Allison and Stephen Miller, respectively
director of the Belfer Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School and director of
the International Security Studies Program, under whose auspices much of
the work for this book was conducted, and to the former head of the
center’s Cyber Security Program, Michael Sulmeyer, for financial support.
Thanks to Dr. Gary Samore, director of the Crown Center at Brandeis, for
his friendship and for the center’s warm help in the final months of the
book’s writing.
We hope that the two unnamed book reviewers for Oxford University
Press will find some compensation for the anonymity of their selfless work
in the knowledge that their extraordinarily insightful comments greatly
changed the quality of the manuscript for the better.
We are indebted to a number of people who read and commented on
various chapters, including Dr. Lior Tabanksy, Dr. Deganit Paiowsky, Dr.
Amit Sheniak, Lior Yafe and, once again, Eviatar Matania. We are also
indebted to a number of former students who helped with the research at
different stages of the process, including Saskia Becaud, who was a
collaborator on a number of projects, Daniel Sorek, Jeremy Staub, Brit
Felson Parsons, and Jacob Fortinsky. Gal Sapir also provided research
assistance.
Our thanks to Dave McBride, Social Science Editor at Oxford Press for
shepherding the manuscript through a long gestation period, Emily
Mackenzie Benitez, Senior Project Editor at Oxford Press, Suganya Elango,
Production Manager, and Bríd Nowlan, copy editor.
Finally, although most certainly not least, we wish to express our deepest
thanks and appreciation to our parents, wives, and children, to whom this
book is dedicated. For Chuck—Anne and Ted, Idit, Lior, and Tal. For
Matthew—Bruce and Marian, Julie, Brianna, and Ben. For Gabi—Liat,
Ofer, Noam, and Yotam.
 AUTHOR BIOS

Prof. Charles (“Chuck”) Freilich, a former deputy national security

adviser in Israel and long-time senior fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center,
teaches political science at Columbia, New York, and Tel Aviv Universities.
He is the author of Zion’s Dilemmas: How Israel Makes National Security
Policy (Cornell University Press, 2012) and Israeli National Security: A
New Strategy for an Era of Change (Oxford University Press, 2018 and
Modan Press in Hebrew). Chuck is the senior editor at the Israel Journal for
Foreign Affairs, has published numerous academic articles and over 170
op-eds, and appears frequently on US, Israeli, and international TV and
radio stations. He earned his PhD from Columbia University.
Prof. Matthew S. Cohen earned his PhD in political science at
Northeastern University. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of
Practice at Merrimack College. Matthew’s research is focused on emerging
security threats. He has published on cyberspace, international relations
theory, Israeli security policy, delegitimization and lawfare, Turkish-Israeli
relations, Turkish politics, and Russian politics.
Prof. Gabi Siboni, a former colonel in the IDF, is a senior research fellow
at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and a consultant to the
IDF and other Israeli defense organizations, including as the chief
methodologist of the IDF’s Research Center for Force Deployment and
Buildup. Gabi was the director of both the Military and Strategic Affairs
and Cyber Security Programs at the Institute for National Security Studies
(INSS) and also edited the institute’s academic journals in these areas. Gabi
earned his PhD in Geographic Information Systems from Ben-Gurion
University and has published numerous academic and other works on
national security and cyber security affairs.
 ABBREVIATIONS

AI Artificial Intelligence
APT Advanced Persistent Threat
ATP Advanced Technology Park
CBM Confidence Building Measure
CEC Cyber Education Center
CERT Computer Emergency Response Team
CNA Computer Network Attacks (for purposes of disruption or destruction)
CNE Computer Network Exploitation (cyber espionage)
CNI Computer Network Influence (cyber information operations)
CT Counterterrorism
CWC Chemical Weapons Convention
DDoS Distributed Denial of Service attacks
DMP Decision-Making Process
DoD (US) Department of Defense
DoS Denial of Service attacks
GUCD Governmental Unit for Cyber Defense
IAF Israel Air Force
ICT Information Communications Technology
IIA Israel Innovation Authority
IISS International Institute for Strategic Studies
INCD Israel National Cyber Directorate
INSC Israel National Security Council
INSS Institute for National Security Studies
IoT Internet of Things
IRGC Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps
ISA Israel Security Agency, also known as the Shin Bet or Shabak
JCPOA Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“Iran nuclear deal” 2015).
LOAC Law of Armed Conflict
MABAM campaign between the wars (Hebrew acronym)
MI Military Intelligence
MNC Multinational Corporation
MoD Ministry of Defense
MoU Memorandum of Understanding
NCSA National Cyber Security Authority
NCSC National Cyber Security Center
NISA National Information Security Authority
NIW (Iranian) National information network
NPT Nonproliferation Treaty
NSA (US) National Security Agency
NSC (US) National Security Council
NSS National Security Staff (new name for INSC above)
SOC Security Operations Center
UAE United Arab Emirates
 PROLOGUE

It was a quiet summer evening when the first signs of trouble appeared.
Some people in Tel Aviv were already strolling on the beachfront
promenade, others were still caught in rush hour traffic. Suddenly, traffic
lights went out and within minutes central Israel became one big snarl. In
Jerusalem, an ambulance with a patient in cardiac arrest was unable to
reach Hadassah hospital. The radar at Ben-Gurion Airport went blank and
aircraft had to be diverted to Cyprus.
Soon electricity began sputtering around the country. Air conditioners
and computers shut off, and hot and increasingly irritable people began
wondering what was going on. Young techies at Microsoft, Facebook, and
other high-tech firms were particularly exasperated. In Dimona, the usually
well-lit security fence around the nuclear reactor was shrouded in darkness.
Banking services crashed, and many found that their accounts and
investment portfolios registered a zero balance. TV programs were
disrupted, but soon showed images of Israelis killed in terrorist attacks.
Social media were overwhelmed by vicious propaganda messages, and
phone communications collapsed.
It was then that a barrage of Hezbollah rockets began hitting population
centers, airbases, and other major military targets. Some people noticed
that Iron Dome, Israel’s vaunted anti-rocket system, seemed to be missing
its targets. Unbeknown to them, Iron Dome operators were frantically
trying to recalibrate their unresponsive computers. An air force pilot
reported seeing extensive troop movements along the northern border, but
monitoring systems gave no indication thereof.
Tensions had been building for months. Iran was closer than ever to a
nuclear breakout and now had a forward operating base in Syria from
which to attack Israel, in addition to the 130,000 Hezbollah rockets housed
in Lebanon.
Over the next few days, the IDF mobilized reserves. Many never received
the messages sent to their smartphones. Others did, but were caught in the
never-ending traffic. By the time their units were able to fully mobilize and
reach the front . . . .
This account is based on actual events and IDF training scenarios, with
just a little help from our imaginations.1
 Introduction

Cyber winter is coming and coming even faster than I expected.

Yigal Unna, Head of Israel National Cyber Directorate, 2020

Cyber winter is here.

Yigal Unna, Head of Israel National Cyber Directorate, 2021

Israel has the world’s most tech-dependent economy and is a global leader
in high-tech R&D and startups, per capita. Israel has also come to be a
leading cyber power, home to as many cyber startups as the rest of the
world combined, not including the United States. Israel is also widely
considered a leading actor in both defensive and offensive cyber
capabilities, and its overall cyber prowess has become an important
component of its national security. As such, the cyber realm has come to
constitute a truly remarkable boon for Israel and a critical dimension of
every aspect of its national life today—socioeconomic, cultural,
governmental, diplomatic, and military.
For Israel’s enemies, conversely, its dependence on the cyber realm is
also a potential source of weakness, making it more vulnerable to cyber
attack than they and providing a possible means by which to counter
Israel’s economic power and military superiority.1 Israel has thus become
one of the top targets of cyber attacks in the world today, facing a nearly
constant daily barrage, both by state and nonstate actors. Indeed, cyber
attacks have come to be viewed as one of the primary threats that Israel
faces today.2
Attackers have targeted virtually every type of computer system in Israel,
hospitals, El Al airline, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Bank of Israel, and
television stations, to mention just a few.3 Critical infrastructure firms,
providing electricity, water, communications, and more, have been a
particular focus of attack. The Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) alone
typically faces hundreds of thousands of attacks every day. Most are mere
nuisances and easily deflected, but some are sophisticated efforts to disable
its systems. A successful cyber attack on the IEC could disrupt power to
virtually all of Israel and paralyze the nation, with potentially severe civil
and military consequences. In 2020, a cyber attack on Israel’s water system
was detected before dangerous levels of chlorine could be released into the
national supply.4
Most of the known attacks are against purely civilian targets and are
designed simply to cause disruption and hardship. Some are conducted
without any stated political agenda or set of demands and are offshoots of
wider campaigns aimed at undermining Israel’s international standing,
weakening it physically, and undermining its societal resilience. For years,
on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day “hacktivist” groups have
conducted a coordinated annual series of cyber attacks against Israeli
websites. One such group has repeatedly threatened Israel with an
“electronic Holocaust” and of being “erased” from cyberspace.5
In 2019 foreign hackers almost succeeded in inserting fake video footage,
purporting to show rockets raining down on Tel Aviv, into the televised
broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual musical extravaganza
held that year in Israel and viewed live by hundreds of millions of people
around the world. In 2020 hackers from Iran, China, North Korea, Russia,
and Poland launched more than 800 cyber attacks against Ben-Gurion
airport and approaching aircraft, to disrupt the arrival of more than 60 world
leaders attending a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation
of Auschwitz, including the presidents of Russia and France and the US
vice president. In 2022 hackers sought to disrupt President Zelenskyy’s live
address to the Knesset, at the height of Ukraine’s war with Russia.6 Had any
of these attacks succeeded, the damage to Israel’s image, tourist industry,
and commercial sector, as a whole, would have been severe.
Israel faces a myriad array of military threats and relies for its security on
a largely reservist army with exceedingly short mobilization times. A cyber
attack that successfully disrupted power, communications, or transportation
systems, even for a short period, could make a critical difference in times of
crisis or war. Even something as basic as shutting off traffic lights or
disrupting cellular communications could delay the mobilization of forces
and have a significant impact on military operations, not to mention the
chaos caused to the entire country. Attacks that successfully penetrated
command-and-control and intelligence systems, or even weapons systems,
could have an even more severe impact.
 Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, unsurprisingly, are the primary sources of
cyber attacks against Israel. Iranian hackers reportedly targeted Israeli
nuclear scientists with “phishing” scams in an effort to gain access to
sensitive information.7 An Iranian-affiliated website succeeded in causing a
brief, but dangerous, spiral in tensions with Pakistan, based on an entirely
fabricated nuclear threat that Israel had supposedly made and a real nuclear
threat that Pakistan made in response.8
Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas have apparently used Facebook and
messaging apps for purposes of terrorism against Israel.9 Palestinian Islamic
Jihad hacked the (unencrypted) communications of IDF drones operating
over Gaza, thereby gaining real-time intelligence that enabled it to better
hide its rockets from Israeli strikes.10 Hamas hackers, posing as attractive
Israeli women, enticed IDF soldiers into downloading fake dating sites onto
their smart phones. In so doing, they were able to gain control over the
soldiers’ phones, overhear the operational briefings they attended, or film
their bases and military positions. Even when the soldiers used secure land
lines for operational purposes, the infected phones continued to transmit
what they were saying.11
Cyber attacks against Israel do not only originate with its Middle Eastern
adversaries.12 Much like the United States and other democratic countries
today, Israel is also concerned about attempts to subvert its electoral system
and influence public opinion through cyber means.13 Russia and China and
their cyber espionage are a particular source of concern,14 as are even close
allies. During a high point in Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza
and, even more importantly, at a time when Israel was preoccupied with the
danger of a possible Iranian nuclear breakout, US and British intelligence
reportedly tapped into live video feeds from Israeli aircraft, monitored
military operations in Gaza, and watched for a potential strike against Iran.1
5
Figure I.1 Malware Peaks and Political Developments Source: Adapted from Kausch and Tabansky 2
018.6

As seen in Figure I.1, the incidence of cyber attacks increases markedly

during both major diplomatic developments and military crises.16 During
the 2009 conflict with Hamas, four waves of progressively stronger attacks
were launched.17 The Home Front Command’s website, a critical means of
communicating with the public during military emergencies, including
instructions on protective measures to be taken during rocket attacks, was
temporarily taken off-line.18 During the 2012 conflict, major commercial
and governmental websites were disrupted, including the Prime Minister’s
Office and Foreign and Defense ministries,19 and TV broadcasts were
briefly replaced with Hamas propaganda films.20 During the 2014 conflict,
Iranian hackers reportedly attempted to seize control of Israeli drones21 and
in 2018 to disrupt the Home Front Command’s rocket defense systems. Had
they succeeded, they would have been able to declare false alerts, or even
worse, prevent the national alert system from being operated and disrupt
defenses against incoming rockets.22
A dramatic upturn in Iranian cyber attacks against private Israeli firms
took place in 2019–2021. One attack, against an insurance company that
caters largely to defense establishment employees, led to a dump on the
Internet of their names, the sensitive organizations they worked for, phone
numbers, home and email addresses, credit card numbers and more, a
veritable gold mine of information for foreign intelligence services.23
The cyber threat to Israel is, of course, just a small part of the far broader
global information revolution. The numbers are staggering. The world now
creates as much data in two days today as it did from the dawn of time up to
2003. By 2012, 90% of all data ever produced by humanity had been
created in the previous two years. The amount of data created in 2020 was
estimated to be fifty times greater than that in 2016.24 The number of home
computers around the world has long since passed the 2 billion mark, some
5 billion people own a mobile phone and more than 20 billion devices are
thought to be connected to the Internet, a number that will expand rapidly
with the spread of the Internet of Things (IoT)25 and Internet of Body (IoB).
* Each computer and phone represents a change in the global lifestyle but

can also serve as an entry door for malicious cyber activity. It is thus hardly
surprising that the World Economic Forum has ranked large-scale breaches
of cyber security as one of the five most serious risks facing the world.26
The exponential power of information networks—and consequently of
information operations—is shown in Figure I.2. Whereas two telephones
are needed to make one connection, five telephones will make ten
connections, twelve will make sixty-six connections and so on.27

Figure I.2 Metcalf’s Law Source: BeanLabs.com

Between 2005 and 2019 more than 11.5 billion records containing
personal data, mostly of US citizens, such as email addresses and social
security numbers, were stolen in over 9,000 separate cyber attacks. During
2017–2019 alone, personal data was stolen from the accounts of nearly 140
million Facebook, 57 million Uber, 100 million Capital One, and 143
million Equifax users. Perhaps most embarrassingly, 400 million users of
the Adult Friend Finder, a casual sex site, were also compromised.28
One report estimated the cost of global cyber crime in 2018 at $600
billion, an increase of $100 billion over 2014, and forecast that it would
reach a whopping $6 trillion by 2021. US firms lose roughly $250 billion
each year as a result of cyber theft of intellectual property. The damage
from a successful cyber attack against just one of the operators of the US
electric grid has been estimated at anywhere between $240 billion and $1
trillion.29
Ransomware attacks, in which the target is forced to pay a fee in
exchange for a digital key that unfreezes a maliciously encrypted system,
have become one of the most important forms of cyber crime, and one
which is increasingly viewed as a national security threat. In 2020 global
ransomware attacks nearly doubled. In 2021 they took place in the United
States alone, on average, every eight minutes. Russian groups are believed
to be behind most ransomware attacks to date, although direct governmental
complicity has yet to be fully established.30
Various state actors, including Russia and Iran, have planted, or at least
planned, intrusions on the US electric grid, as the United States has on
theirs, or China has on India’s.31 In 2021, the computer systems of a water
treatment facility in Florida were breached, raising fears that dangerous
chemicals could have been released into the water supply.32 These and other
attacks on critical national infrastructure, with potentially systemic effects,
are a particularly severe danger.
In 2020 hackers sought to steal information about Covid-19 vaccine
research in the United States, UK, Canada, and elsewhere. Chinese-
affiliated attacks apparently began within months of the pandemic’s
outbreak, followed by Russian and North Korean attacks. Spearfishing
emails impersonated executives at legitimate firms involved in the global
vaccine distribution chain, as well as representatives of the World Health
Organization (WHO) and personnel recruiters for pharmaceutical
companies. Confidential information regarding the Pfizer vaccine was
stolen from the European Medicines Agency, the regulatory agency
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
to Miss Petty his assertion that the supposed island-studded
lake was but an optical delusion common in desert lands.

"Harold is perked up with his book-learning," observed

Miss Petty, "but he's not so much wiser than his elders.
Don't I know a lake when I see one!"

"I'm going to have a dip, a jolly good dip!" cried Shelah,

whose spirits rose like an india-rubber ball when pressure is
removed. Off she rushed, impelled by charming hopes of
splashing about in the water, followed by Miss Petty, who
half forgot weariness and misery in her eagerness to reach
—what did not exist!

Poor Theresa! That search after the supposed lake was

an emblem of what her whole life had been; impelled by
vanity, worldliness, selfishness, her hair had grown grey,
her years had been wasted in the pursuit of the world's
deceitful mirage.

In the meantime, Harold joined the group of Arabs who

were standing in a semi-circle round a collection of
mashales, filled almost to bursting with a supply of water
which was to last the whole party for three long days. Each
of these brown water-bags was made of the entire skin of a
sheep, the head and legs excepted, the place where the
neck had been, serving, when unfastened, as a channel
through which the water could flow.
 The Arabs laughed to see the Feringhee take up in his arms
what ought to be borne on the back.

"Lift that!" said Tewfik to Harold, in a tone of command.

The Englishman's pride rose in arms; he was no slave of

a dirty ignorant Bedouin, to do for him the work of a
bihiste! But common-sense showed Harold that such pride
was worse than folly; he was not told to do anything wrong,
and he had no power to resist with success. The stately
form was bowed, and Harold raised the heavy weight by an
effort of sheer strength, for he had not the professional skill
of a water-carrier. The Arabs laughed to see the Feringhee
take up in his arms, as he would have done a child, what
ought to be borne on the back.

"Put another mashale upon him, where a mashale

should be!" shouted Tewfik.
 As Harold was about to drop the first heavy skin, the
Bedouin bade him forbear. "You shall carry a double load!"
exclaimed the Arab. "One in your own way and one in mine.
Bend your proud back to receive it."

"It is beyond my strength," said Harold, in what Arabic

he could command.

"We will soon see if such be the case!" cried Tewfik,

raising a staff which he had in his hand, as if with intention
to strike.

But the stick did not descend, nor was the double
burden lifted by the pale-faced captive.

A sudden exclamation from the chief caused all eyes to

be suddenly turned towards the south, from which came a
gust of wind so oppressively hot, that it seemed as if it had
come direct from a roaring furnace. Every Arab, as if by
instinct, muffled his face in his mantle, and then threw
himself on the ground; the camels, which had been
kneeling, stretched themselves out, and lay with their long
necks extended, and their noses resting on the sand. Not a
word was spoken save the exclamation, "The simoom! Allah
save us!" which burst from the chief, as he placed himself
so that his camel should be between him and the poisonous
blast which was sweeping towards the encampment. The
sky had almost suddenly become terribly dark, with a livid
tint of purple towards the south. Harold dropped the
mashale, and crouched behind it, resting his brow against
the moist skin.

Then swept the deadly simoom of the desert upon the

party, almost suffocating them with the burning sand which,
it has been said, sometimes not only kills, but so effectually
buries its victims that no traces remain to tell where they
lie! To Harold the scorching blast felt like the breath of the
angel of death, and he was tempted to pray that to him it
might be such indeed. But life was strong within the young
Englishman still: the rushing simoom came and passed over
the prostrate men and beasts, as the heaviest trials
sometimes come, and pass away.

The cloud of hot sand went sweeping on, and—though

with garments clagged with what it had left behind—the
Arabs were able to rise from the ground, uttering
ejaculations which—at least from Harold's lips—took the
form of thanksgiving. Yes, the poor captive could thank
God, he scarcely knew why, that his life was prolonged;
perhaps there was some undefined hope that it had been
spared for some gracious purpose, if for suffering, still for
service. Some blows might yet be struck in the good cause
by the Knight of St. John.

But the simoom of the Arabian desert had had its

message for one who had indeed suffered but never served.
Theresa Petty, lured by the mirage, had wandered from the
encampment, and had been overtaken by the poisonous
blast. Being utterly unprepared for it, the unhappy woman
had been smitten down, as if laid low by a scythe. The
accident, as it seemed, of her lying half over Shelah O'More,
and so forming a kind of screen to the terrified child, had
been the means of preserving the poor little girl.

It was Shelah's bitter cry which guided the Arabs to the

spot, as they were passing on their way towards Djauf.
They had indeed missed their captives from the party, but
Harold could not persuade the Bedouins to make any search
for those whom they deemed of little value. Hartley, who
was on foot, went up to the place where Shelah sat crying
in helpless distress.
 "Where is Miss Petty?" he hastily inquired of the child.

"She's there," said Shelah, pointing to what looked like

a low, a very low mound of sand.

Harold hastily removed some of the sand, uncovering

enough to ascertain that life was quite extinct.

"Dead!" he said in an undertone, but it caught the ear

of Shelah.

"Dead!" repeated Shelah in turn. "The good lady is

dead, and Robin, and now she is dead—I think it will be my
turn next!"

"I hope not," said Harold gently.

"Would you mind?" asked Shelah.

The artless question touched Harold's heart. "Yes, I

should mind very much, Shelah," he said.

The poor child, sobbing, threw herself into his arms,

and clung to the only being near who cared whether she
lived or died.

Harold had not a minute even to utter a prayer by Miss

Petty's corpse. The Arabs, who had been already delayed in
their journey by the simoom, insisted on his instantly
joining the march, and, had Harold lingered, would have
used force to compel submission. Gently young Hartley
raised Shelah, so that, without dismounting, an Arab could
place her before him on his camel. Harold himself had to go
on foot.

The caravan moved slowly on, leaving the corpse of

Miss Petty behind. There was a strange similarity between
the fate of Grace Evendale and that of Theresa, both dying
in an Arabian desert with but a single human being near,
both left in unknown, unmarked graves. And yet the
difference between them was as that between the convict
and the conqueror; one going into endless exile, the other
departing to receive a crown. The comparison suggests less
of similarity than of contrast.

CHAPTER XXI.
ONLY ONE LAMB.

THERE is a beautiful story, with which many are familiar,

of a good missionary who, when too aged to go on with the
work which he loved, was found meekly teaching the
alphabet to a little child, thankful that he had still power to
perform this humble labour for God. Harold was reminded
of this anecdote by the position in which he found himself in
relation to poor little Shelah.

The child, desolate and helpless in a land of strangers,

where the name of Christian was scarcely known, had no
one to whom to look for kindness and protection but Harold.
He had regarded her as unlovely and unloveable; Shelah, in
her merrier days, had excited no sympathy in his mind; but
Christian pity now touched a chord, and that chord wakened
something like music in young Hartley's desolate spirit. As
he marched on painfully in the heat, keeping as near as he
could to the camel on which poor Shelah was perched,
Harold thought much of the future fate of the young Irish
girl. She was of good family, her father a distinguished
officer in the army, and Shelah was his only child. When the
news of her having been carried off by Arabs should reach
India, efforts, and strenuous ones, would doubtless be
made for her deliverance. But Arabia was a large country in
which to search, without newspapers for advertisements, or
postal system for letters, or wires to flash messages with
lightning speed.

"Were I to be separated from Shelah, which is likely

enough," thought Harold, "or were anything to happen to
me, all trace of the child might be utterly lost. Shelah would
be buried in some Mahomedan zenana, and childish and
thoughtless as she is, would probably soon forget
everything about her family and her language. I doubt
whether the poor girl would remember her own name for a
month. I wish that I had some means of stamping it—either
on her form or her memory."

Harold glanced up at the little girl, who still wore her

cardinal's hat, though its colour had almost entirely faded.
The motion of the camel made Shelah appear as if being
rocked on waves; she was clinging to the large bundles
strapped on the camel, in order to feel the motion less.
Harold raised his voice that it might reach the child.

"What is your name?" he asked, to see how far she was

able to identify herself with the daughter of Sir Patrick
O'More.

"Lammikin," cried Shelah, looking down from her perch.

"Tell me your other name," said Harold.

"I don't want another name; I'm just Lammikin; that is

what Robin used to call me."
 "This will never do," thought Harold. Again he raised his
voice:

"Do you know the name of your father?"

"Papa," was the ready reply, and Harold could draw no

other.

"Do you know, my child, where he lives?"

"In some island; but I don't like islands—they are

nothing but sand."

"And like sand is your memory," thought Harold,

realising how short a time it would take to obliterate almost
everything from a mind such as Shelah O'More's. The young
man compassionated the misery to be endured, perhaps for
many long years, by loving parents making a wearisome,
never-ending, useless search in these wild regions after an
only child, hope growing fainter and fainter, and at last
dying away in despair.

A thought occurred to the missionary's mind.

"Shelah, you love singing," he said; "shall I make a little

song for you to sing as you travel along?"

"It's hard to sing with the big beast bumping me up and

down like this," replied Shelah. "But I do like songs, most of
all if they're funny."

Harold, to an easy, popular air, which he had often

heard the child humming, gave the following jingling rhyme.
How strange it was to find himself singing:
 "Shelah O'More; I'm Shelah O'More;
Take me to India's bright, beautiful shore."

The little device had instant success. Shelah for a few

moments loosened her clinging hands in order to clap them.

"I like that song!" she exclaimed, and instantly began to

sing it. Then she paused to ask a question.

"Shall I find the good woman and Robin on India's

bright, beautiful shore?" said the child.

"No," replied Harold, with a quivering lip; "they have

gone to heaven's shore, which is more bright and beautiful
by far."

"Then I'll change the song!" cried Shelah, and she

instantly sang out:

"Take me to heaven's bright, beautiful shore."

Harold took the hint unconsciously given. He who had

hoped to gather in a Christian flock from amongst the
heathen, had here his charge confined to that of one child,
a single lamb to feed for the Master.

"I want you to try something besides singing, poor

Lammikin," he said. "I want to teach you a little prayer to
be said night and morning. It will, I hope, help you to reach
the beautiful place."
 Shelah again loosened her grasp, and clasped her little
sunburnt hands together.

"Say—'Please, Lord, make Shelah a good child, for

Christ's sake,'" said Harold, choosing the simplest petition
which rose to his mind.

"I know a better prayer than that," said Shelah.

"'O God, teach me to love Thee, for the sake of

the Lord Jesus.'

"The kind lady taught me to say that, and Robin gave

me a verse:

"'God is love.'"

"Keep those two precious remembrances of them!"

exclaimed Harold, his dry, heated eyes relieved by
unwonted moisture. "Sing them daily, say them again and
again, till we all meet on the beautiful shore."

Harold himself was no longer utterly wretched. That

calm spirit of submission had come over his mind, which
has been compared to the bending down of the ripe, golden
corn, the sign that the harvest time is near.

So onward proceeded Hartley with the Arab banditti

towards Djauf; whilst Robin, with the Persians, was from
another quarter impatiently pressing on in the same
direction. But the little delay which had been occasioned by
Hassan's flight on Firdosi had prevented the two
movements from coinciding in point of time. In the city of
Djauf the two young Knights of St. John were never to
meet.

CHAPTER XXII.
SLAVERY.

THE pen of an eloquent traveller has thus described the

city which Harold and the Shararat Bedouins entered after
their painful journey through the desert.

"A broad deep valley, descending ledge after ledge, till

its innermost depths are hidden from sight amid far-
reaching shelves of reddish rock; below, everywhere
studded with tufts of palm-groves, and clustering fruit-trees
in dark green patches down to the farthest end of its
windings; a large brown mass of irregular masonry
crowning a central hill; beyond, a tall and solitary tower
overlooking the opposite bank of the hollow, and farther
down small round turrets and flat house-tops half buried
amid the garden foliage."

"Is this India, bright beautiful India at last!" exclaimed

Shelah, looking on the lovely scene with delight. To her, at
least, the sight of houses and fruit-trees gave unmingled
pleasure; the child, enjoying the present, neither took
thought for the future, nor felt regret for the past.

Djauf presented an unusually gay appearance on the

morning when it was entered by Harold and the Bedouin
band. It was the day closing the grand festivities with which
were celebrated the marriage of the Arabian Governor's
eldest daughter. The bazaars were crowded with people in
the gayest of Oriental costumes, and noisy with drums and
other instruments unpleasing to European ears, with
vociferous shouting and gabbling in half-a-dozen different
tongues. The inhabitants of the city were easily
distinguished from the wild sons of the desert, being taller
in stature, lighter in complexion, and franker in manner,
with long curling black locks; the Djaufites showed to
advantage beside the suspicious-looking Bedouins.

Here Persians went prancing by on their high-mottled

steeds, there Arabs, wearing red cotton vests with large
hanging sleeves, their heads enwrapped in kerchiefs striped
red and yellow, lounged along or chattered at the numerous
stalls piled with sweetmeats for which Djauf is famed.
Bihistes, bending under their burdens were with difficulty
making their way through the crowds, stopping frequently
to impart "the gift of God" to the thirsty. Camels, donkeys,
cattle, helped to block up the roads, but no one seemed to
be in a hurry. The day was one intended for pleasure, and
Shelah enjoyed the bright changing scene and the noise, as
if all the tamasha had been got up for her special
amusement.

The centre of all the excitement and gaiety is the castle

in which the governor dwells, and from which the bridal
procession is in a short time to emerge. This castle is a
large mass of irregular masonry, with a thick tower in the
centre, suggestive rather of strength than of beauty. We will
enter through the arched gate, and cross the large paved
court, which is crowded with the bridegroom's followers and
the governor's armed retainers. A hundred sabres flash in
the sun, intermingled with guns, and weapons of ruder
construction. Turbans of various hues, high caps, the fez,
the kerchief twisted round the head, embroidered cloaks
bordered with silver and gold, here a red mantle, there a
costly shawl, with glitter of sparkling jewels which, in the
East, are by no means left to the exclusive use of women,
make the scene suggestive of one read of in the "Arabian
Nights."

An inner court brings us into the Governor's large

reception room called the Khawah, where the potentate of
Djauf sits in state, propped on his gold-striped cushions, to
receive the congratulations of his numerous guests. The
bride is not visible; we must imagine her dressed in red and
gold, and almost weighed down with jewels, the central
point of interest in the zenana, which is as densely crowded
with chattering women as the court and banqueting room
are with men.

But in the midst of the brilliant scene, a cloud is on the

Governor's face. He had promised to his son-in-law the gift
of a favourite Nubian slave, skilled in music, perfect in the
art of preparing coffee, something of a jester withal, and
behold! On the very day of the departure of the wedded
pair, Barahat has fallen down and broken his leg, after—oh!
shameful sound to Mahomedan ears!—too free indulgence
in the forbidden!

"Let not his Highness's mind be disturbed," said a

courtier, whose head was encircled with a kerchief adorned
with a broad band of camels' hair, skilfully entwined with
bright coloured silk. "If the Nubian fell, it was kismat (fate),
the loss of a slave is more easily supplied than that of a
good horse. Some Shararat Bedouins came into the city at
daybreak, bringing with them a handsome slave, of the
complexion of a Circassian and the mien of a prince, and a
white child with hair red as the beard of the Prophet. The
slaves are both for sale."
 "Of what race? Where found? What price do the robbers
demand?" asked the ruler of Djauf.

"They come from some Wiliyati (European) land," said

the Arab; "no robber tells where he found his spoil, these
slaves may have been taken from some wreck on the coast.
Sixty gold tomauns are asked for the young man, and
twenty for the girl."

"What can they do?" asked the Governor, after for a

brief space turning over the subject in his mind, whilst
leisurely sipping his coffee.

The courtier gave a list of accomplishments to which

Harold certainly laid no claim. The white slave was a poet, a
musician; the girl who accompanied him danced to his
playing.

The Arab would not have dared to have declared all this
had he not thought that, the bridal party being on the point
of starting for a place distant hundreds of miles from Djauf,
there was no danger of detection. The sinfulness of fraud
and falsehood never troubled the conscience of the Arab, for
he could not be said to possess one. He had been nurtured
on lies, and felt rather pride than shame at success in
cheating his employer.

After obtaining from the governor the eighty pieces of

gold, the courtier hurried off to make his purchases from
the Shararat Arabs. It brought the hot blood to Harold's
pale cheek when, standing silently by, he heard the
wrangling, the eager bargaining, the noisy asseverations,
the blasphemous appeals to heaven, over the sale of an
Englishman. It was humiliating to have his price beaten
down, as if he had been some mere beast of burden.
 "What are they saying? Why are they so angry? What
are they quarrelling about?" asked Shelah. "And why are
they looking so hard at me?" Harold could not give
utterance to a reply to the questions asked by the poor little
slave.

"After all," thought Harold, "I am not the first one of the
Lord's people to have to endure the humiliation of having a
price put upon me." Harold remembered Joseph; he
remembered One far more exalted than Israel's son, for
whose sacred person pieces of silver had been counted
down. It is only in sin that there is shame.

The courtier was skilful in the art of bargaining, and,

after at least half-an-hour given to noisy disputing, he paid
down forty tomauns for Harold, Shelah being thrown in as a
make-weight by Tewfik, who considered the baronet's child
as a thing of no value at all.

The first result of a change of masters was a very

welcome one to the slaves. Harold had been unable to
change his garments since the day when he had fallen into
Bedouin hands; and this, with the impossibility of bathing,
had been to the English gentleman one of the most
unsupportable of his trials. But, having become a gift from
the Governor of Djauf to his high-born son-in-law, the slave
must appear in befitting guise, with not a grain of dust upon
him. Hartley had at once the luxury of a bath, and then was
clothed from head to foot in spotless white, a muslin turban
was wound around his head, and around his waist was
twisted a kamarband of crimson and gold.

Given over to the charge of some Arab women, Shelah

also underwent a transformation. Greatly enchanted with
her finery, Shelah met Harold about an hour afterwards.
The Lammikin was attired in yellow gauze, spangled with
silver, her red locks hidden under a large veil of the same
gaudy material.

"Am I not grand?—Like a queen!" exclaimed Shelah.

"And are not these people kind to dress me like this! But
oh, Mr. Hartley!" added the Lammikin, as she looked up
with wondering admiration at Harold in his Oriental
costume. "You are quite beautiful! You look like one of the
angels in the book of Bible pictures! You want nothing but
white wings! Do you think that they will grow?" asked the
child.

The faintest of smiles rose to Harold's lips at the artless

question. He thought, with a sigh, of the verse:

"'Oh, that I had wings like a dove, then would I

flee away and be at rest!'"

CHAPTER XXIII.
A PROMISE.

"How beautiful the hour of early dawn,

When the first rays glance up the Eastern sky,
When the bright fingers of the fresh'ning morn
Draw back the veil of dark obscurity,
And give all Nature's beauties to the eye,
Her fairest scenes unfolding to the view;
The lark with buoyant pinion mounts on high,
 And on the emerald lawn the pure soft dew
Sparkles with every beam which breaks the bright
clouds
through.

"Thus on the night of ignorance and sin

The radiant morning of Conversion breaks,
A beam from heaven seems to shine within;
And, as the lark his earthly nest forsakes
And upward soars towards the source of light,—
From bonds of sin the soul enraptured breaks,
And—winged by Faith—springs on her upward flight
Till that clear day when Faith itself is lost in sight!"

A CHANGE, something like that described above, had

come over the spirit of Ali, the Persian. The Amir had never
been an enthusiastic follower of the False Prophet, and what
Ali had heard and seen during his travels in various lands
had extinguished any respect that he had felt for the
Mahomedan faith. He had long suspected the Koran to be a
tissue of lies palmed upon Arabian credulity by an impostor,
a book unworthy of comparison with the Bible, which Ali
had sometimes read in a cursory manner. But to leave hold
of a false religion is a very different thing from grasping a
true one. To extinguish smoky lamps is not a means of
calling in the radiant day.

Ali, till he met a simple, true-hearted Christian, was an

unbeliever as regarded the power of any faith to change the
life. The Amir had been unfortunate in meeting with several
nominal Christians, had shrewdly compared their conduct
with their creed, and rejected the latter because
inconsistent with the former. Ali had, as many do, found a
refuge against the shafts of conscience in carping criticism
of others; he was not worse, so he thought, than many who
believe themselves certain of heaven through the merits of
One whose example they do not follow, whose commands
they do not obey.

But Ali's eyes were now opened; he looked on himself

as stained with sin, and saw in Christianity, such as the
Hartleys had embraced, the only means of being saved from
eternal condemnation. No longer the Persian listened to
Robin's recitals from Scripture in the spirit of a critic; for Ali
was thirsting for the water of life, and could not pause to
comment on the form of the cup which held it. Robin was
delighted, but not surprised, to find that his prayers had
been heard, for had he not pleaded with One whom
Scripture describes as the Hearer of prayer?

It was at night, during the last halt made before Djauf

would be reached, that Ali confessed to Robin his own
desire to become a Christian.

Robin's eyes sparkled with joy.

"I will accompany you and your brother to India as soon

as it is possible to do so," said the Amir, "study your
Scriptures thoroughly, and then receive baptism without
delay."

The expressive face of Robin was suddenly shaded, as if

by a doubt.

"How, do you not desire me to become a Christian?"

asked the Persian quickly.

"I wish it intensely!" cried Robin.

"And have I not already given myself to the Saviour, has

Christ not entered my heart?"
 "Have you given yourself to Him out and out?" asked
the youth. "If Christ have entered your heart are you ready
to do His will in all things?"

"My future conduct will show it."

"But what of the past?" said the younger Hartley,

looking on the ground as he spoke, for he felt pain in giving
pain.

"The past cannot be recalled—you have said that all is

forgiven."

"Yes—as far as regards God; but we must make what

amends we can to man also. When Christ came to
Zacchaeus, the publican received free salvation, but still he
said, 'Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I
have done wrong to any man I restore him fourfold.'"

"I do not understand you, boy!" said Ali, and very deep
grew the furrow on his brow. "I have taken one life, and I
cannot restore it; God does not require an impossibility."

Robin was silent, he knew not how to express what was

on his mind: but Ali was resolved to have an explanation.

"If you were in my place what would you do?" asked the
Amir.

"I do not know what I should do, but I know what I

should feel that I ought to do," replied Robin, with some
reluctance.

"What might that be?" asked Ali, looking the young

Englishman full in the face with his keen, piercing eyes.
 Robin met the gaze as he made reply, "Go to my
mother, entreat her forgiveness, and then give myself up to
justice."

This was so contrary to any idea which had ever been

entertained by the Oriental, that his first emotion was that
of astonishment at the childish simplicity which could make
so absurd a suggestion. However, Robin was evidently in
earnest, the warm blood was mantling even to his brow,
and he intuitively clenched his hand as if realising what an
effort it would cost him, what courage he felt that it would
require to do what he deemed to be right in so terrible a
case.

Ali did not lose his temper, but his voice sounded harsh
as, after a pause of some minutes, he expressed himself as
follows:

"There is no justice—I mean according to English ideas

—in Persia. If I became my own accuser, I should but be
regarded as a fool. I should not be injured in life or limb,
but every hanger on at a corrupt court would seize on the
opportunity of robbing me of every piastre that I possess. I
should be stripped of all that I have inherited, all that I
have made by skilful speculations in jewels and horses since
leaving Persia. I should simply be reduced to a penniless
beggar; unless, indeed, by speaking out my opinion
regarding Mahomet, I should be promoted to the rank of a
martyr."

"But surely you should visit your mother?"

"It would be more tolerable to me to own myself a

murderer in the palace of the Shah, than to face her whom
I have bereaved of her favourite son!" exclaimed Ali. "I