A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

The Jerusalem Assassin is entirely a work of fiction.

It is true that I once worked for an Israeli prime minister, though that was for a very brief time and occurred some two decades ago.

Yes, I may be one of the few —perhaps the only —novelist to have traveled to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to meet with and spend hours in conversation with senior Saudi officials and members of the royal family.

It is also true that just prior to the release of my previous novel —The Persian Gamble —I had the opportunity to meet in the Oval Office with the president of the United States, the vice president, the secretary of state, and the national security advisor and discuss then, and in other meetings, a number of themes in this book.

That said, I want to be clear: the characters herein are made up from whole cloth, figments of my fertile imagination. They are not meant in any way, shape, or form to represent real people, living or dead. The dialogue herein is also completely fictional. There are no actual quotes from any real person I may have met or read about.

On one level, this novel contains a number of worst-case scenarios. That is, high-ranking American diplomats are assassinated. Various world leaders —including the head of a NATO ally —are involved in funding the launch of a new and deadly terrorist organization. Palestinian leaders continue rejecting all efforts to forge a real and lasting peace treaty between their people and the people of Israel. The list goes on. While all of these plot elements are plausible, they are not predictions of what I believe will necessarily happen in the near or distant future —only fears.

And let me hasten to add that I certainly pray that no harm ever befalls the brave men and women involved in peacemaking efforts in the Middle East, as befalls some of the fictional characters in these pages.

On another level, of course, this novel certainly contains elements of wishful thinking. That is, as both a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen and an evangelical from a Jewish heritage, I pray every day for the peace of Jerusalem, just as commanded in the Scriptures. What’s more, as a resident of Jerusalem, I long for the day when another Sunni Arab leader demonstrates the boldness and the courage of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Jordan’s King Hussein by choosing to make peace with the State of Israel, and that the leaders of Israel show the wisdom and the discernment to make it easier —not harder —for such a day to come and come soon.

Will the Palestinian leadership continue to resist every effort to bring about peace? Perhaps, but I genuinely hope not, because I want to see peace for their sake and for ours. Will the Saudis see it in their national interest to make peace with Israel, even if the Palestinians maintain a rejectionist posture? Perhaps someday, and I genuinely hope so, though we all know there are many forces inside the kingdom and throughout the region who will try to thwart such moves should they ever be actively contemplated, much less acted upon.

This is one of the reasons I love to tell stories. For writing a novel is not fortune-telling or prophecy. It is the act of exploring my nightmares and my dreams. It is the art of trying to capture the imaginations of readers around the world and take them into a world I hope might be one day, and a world I hope never comes to pass.