Product Description

Osama bin Laden is dead.
Saddam Hussein is buried.
Baghdad lies in ruins.

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.

But in the shadows lie men whose hearts are filled with evil - men who do not relish a post-Saddam era, men for whom the prospect of a Palestinian peace accord with Israel goes against everything for which their fathers have fought and died. Such men - and the countries that finance them - are ready to do anything necessary to slaughter those who stand in their way. The clock is ticking. Can Bennett, McCoy, and the American president make peace before the Middle East once again erupts in war?

Product Details

• Published on: 2003-10-21
• Released on: 2003-10-21
• Formats: Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

From 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.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
In this sequel to THE LAST JIHAD, Rosenberg returns readers to a Middle East poised on the brink of peace between Palestinians and Israelis. In one act of terrorism, this fragile hope is shattered, and the world is once more plunged into chaos. The story is rich with detail, topical references, interesting characters, and logical conclusions. Reader Patrick G. Lawlor does an admirable job in keeping the action flowing. J.L.C. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
It's the near future. Osama bin Laden is dead; so are Saddam Hussein and his sons. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have been wiped out. Iraq is in ruins, and it's up to Jon Bennett, the U.S. president's senior advisor, to find a way to rebuild it. Central to this effort is a "massive and spectacular tract of oil and natural gas" discovered in the Mediterranean, a source of wealth that could bring peace to the Middle East. But will 81-year-old Yassar Arafat let peace reign? That becomes a moot point when Arafat is assassinated by a suicide bomber, and our hero, Bennett, is suddenly all that stands between peace and global destruction. Like the first Bennett novel, The Last Jihad (2002), this one is a timely tale of political intrigue and international terrorism. That's the good thing. The bad thing is that (also like its predecessor) the novel features stilted dialogue, crudely drawn characters, and a generally clunky narrative style. The author is clearly an expert in international politics, but his skills as a storyteller have yet to be revealed. Still, Rosenberg is scheduled for interviews with Rush Limbaugh and Hannity and Colmes, which will create demand. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Very Good, but not as good as Last Jihad
This book starts out explosive, but seems to get somewhat intrenched in backstory and tends to go on with long periods of time between action sequences. An excellent library read, but maybe not a purchase for those saving money. Joel Rosenberg is an excellent writer, but this novel seems to leave you wanting more.

Not what I expected
The book was very slow, only really keeping my attention the last few chapters. The description sounded like it would be action packed, but just moved very slow. Should have put as much effort into the entire book as he did the final chapters.

The Last Days leaves you praying for one more chance!
A thoroughly engrossing political, military, and terrorist novel about what would happen in the Middle East in the event
of the murder of Arafat, by one of his own henchmen. The ensuing power struggle, and civil war for leadership of the terrorist organization, not unlike a Mafia power struggle, leaves you stunned, and gasping for breath.( In my opinion, I would have let them kill each other off, then we be done with them, once and for all!)
A Peace Plan between Isreal, and Palastine to drill for oil, making citizens of both parties wealthy? Sorry, it wouldn't happen. Terrorist are too hate driven to allow any peace plan to work. Arafat has been offered land more than once, and he refused it, because his, and most of militant Islam's whole purpose isn't to get their own land, but the deaths, and destruction of Isrealis, Christians, and everyone else they consider "Infidels".
The book gives you insight into the Isreali Palastinian(Philistine) problems, and is a lot of fun to read! Better in many ways than the first book "The Last Jihad".