The Last Days

Now the eyes of the world are on Jerusalem as Jon Bennett--a Wall Street strategist turned senior White House advisor--his beautiful CIA partner Erin McCoy and the U.S. Secretary of State arrive in the Middle East to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

On the table: a dramatic and potentially historic Arab-Israeli peace plan, of which Bennett is the chief architect. At the heart of the proposed treaty is the discovery of black gold deep underneath the Mediterranean-a vast and spectacular tract of oil and natural gas that could offer unprecedented riches for every Muslim, Christian, and Jew in Israel and Palestine.

With the international media closely tracking the story, the American message is as daring as it is direct: Both sides must put behind them centuries of bitter, violent hostilities to sign a peace treaty. Both sides must truly cooperate on drilling, pumping, refining, and shipping the newly found petroleum. Both sides must work together to develop a dynamic, new, integrated economy to take advantage of the stunning opportunity. Then--and only then--the United States will help underwrite the billions of dollars of venture capital needed to turn the dream into reality.

Praise for Joel C. Rosenberg and The Last Jihad

"Rosenberg nails it-a provocative, conservative political thriller that reads like a major Hollywood blockbuster. In the spirit of Tom Clancy's Sum of All Fears, Rosenberg's The Last Jihad absolutely crackles with high energy and a chilling premise-what if the war on terror goes nuclear?"
-Rush Limbaugh, host of the nationally syndicated Rush Limbaugh Radio Show

"Buckle up! The Last Jihad is a high-speed, heart-pounding, edge-of-your-seat-roller coaster ride into the heart of darkness. . . . Feels ripped from tomorrow's headlines . . . This stuff could really happen!"
-Sean Hannity, host of the nationally syndicated Sean Hannity Radio Show and Fox and News Channel's Hannity and Colmes

"What a timely tale. Rosenberg has written, a la Clancy, one of those rare novels that is riveting to read because it seems too real. A tingling triumph."
-Steve Forbes

"A wild rocketing read, The Last Jihad is Tom Clancy writ large."
-Vince Flynn, New York Times bestselling author of Separation of Power

"Fast paced . . . action-packed . . . The Last Jihad is a must-read!"
-Lt. Col. Oliver North

"A terrific new novel . . . excellent . . . highly prescient, very real, and very informed!"
-G. Gordon Liddy

"Clancyesque . . . prescient . . . a gripping, page-turning novel."
-National Review

Publishers Weekly

Rosenberg's sequel to the bestselling The Last Jihad (2002) is a near-clone of its predecessor: an action-packed Clancyesque political thriller with paper-thin characters. Presidential envoy Jon Bennett returns as the protagonist, along with his bodyguard and love interest, Erin McCoy, an "Uzi-toting, Arabic-speaking CIA supermodel." Their efforts to broker a Middle East peace, whose centerpiece is a fortuitously discovered deep oil reserve with the potential to make every Israeli and Palestinian wealthy, are literally blown to pieces when a suicide bomber claims the life of the U.S. secretary of state and Yasser Arafat himself. The surviving members of the American delegation, along with the Palestinian and Israeli entrepreneurs behind the oil-drilling venture, are scrambling frantically to escape from the Gaza Strip when civil war breaks out among the factions grappling to succeed Arafat as leader. Meanwhile, the sinister forces behind the attack seek to wreak further havoc by dispatching teams of terrorists to America while provoking the Israeli government to trigger a wider conflagration by invading the West Bank and Gaza. The author singularly fails to suspend readers' disbelief with his baffling decision to set the action in the year 2010 while simultaneously placing real-life events from 2003 such as the invasion of Iraq and the appointment of Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) as Palestinian prime minister seven years in the future. His efforts to make the book a relevant, "ripped-from-the-headlines" tale are already dated-the real Abu Mazen has resigned his post-and the fantasy solution to the intractable political conflict by a deus ex machina will strike many readers as silly. $350,000 ad/promo. (Oct. 21) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Joel C. Rosenberg is a writer and communications strategist who has worked for some of the world's most influential and provocative leaders, including Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, and former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A front-page Sunday New York Times profile called him a "force in the capital." A political columnist for World Magazine, He has published articles in The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and Policy Review. He and his wife, Lynn, have three sons and live near Washington, D.C.