Review of "The Bomb on the Rock" by Michael Weiss

27 December 2013

One of the benefits of having a website is that you can it make easy for people to contact you.

On 27 November 2013, Jonny Wineberg, my Co-Chair at the Muslim Jewish Forum of Greater Manchester, (MJF), received the unsolicited email reproduced in the box.

Greetings Jonny,

Mahmud ibn Salim ibn Faruk, originally from the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, and Doctor Benny Mizrachi, the Sephardic Jewish dentist from New Jersey USA, both agree as noted on your website―that Islam and Judaism are closer to each other than any other two religions. Especially, since Mahmud and Benny are the very same human being! Mahmud happens to be the Palestinian Sleeper, who immigrates to Israel with Benny carrying an atomic bomb in his cargo, for the purpose of liberating Palestine.

For your personal reading pleasure I wish to bring to your attention a story that tells of an event that may have very well happened, in combination with actual events that truly did happen in our history. This is a story I have developed over the years, after my years of reserve duty in Gaza ―a story of a desire to be liberated, of action, of compassion, humanity... an atomic thriller.

The book just went up on Amazon Books last week, where one USA reader recently commented -
“The Bomb on the Rock" could be a fast paced look at the soul of the region, all of its people, and how terribly close to disaster we have been, so many times!

I would be honored if you take a look. Here is Amazon link [see links at end of this review].

Please share the link with others, as you will see throughout the story how Mahmud and Benny come to the very same conclusion as the Muslim Jewish Forum of Greater Manchester.

Wish you all the best, and would be honored to hear you response… hear your feedback after you turned the pages.

My sincere regards,
Shalom,
Michael Weiss

I have since learned that Michael Weiss had Googled to find organisations interested in promoting Muslim / Jewish understanding and thereby found us. Indeed it is a tribute to the quality of Google’s technology that searching for the two words Muslim Jewish results in 68 million results, but our website appears in the first 10 results.

Jonny Wineberg shared the email with me and some other members of the MJF. As the Kindle e-book was only 77p and looked interesting, I bought it.

While I have hundreds of unread books, I looked at the first couple of pages on my tablet and found that I was hooked. I simply wanted to know what happened next.

I have now posted the review below on the Amazon UK and US website.

A compelling read

Buying this book was virtually risk-free given the price. However it then had to compete with many unread books.

I found that once I read the first page, I wanted to turn over and see what happens next. Accordingly despite many other pressures on my time I read the book in a small number of sessions. It becomes particularly gripping once the bomb is in Israel and in the hands of the terrorists.

The author served for seven years in the Israel Defence Forces, and it shows. The combat scenes display evidence of real military training which gives them authenticity and I think makes them more exciting.

The principal characters, Mahmud ibn Salim ibn Faruk and Lieutenant Colonel Kfir Peled are fleshed out so that you care about what happens to them; in them you see clearly that there are two sides to the Arab/Israeli dispute.

I have only two gripes. Firstly some of the detailed identification of the military hardware and other hardware in the book reads almost like "product placement" and appears "over the top" if the goal was to demonstrate authenticity.

More importantly, the Palestinian terrorists are not fully developed as characters so reader is not encouraged to ask why human beings might wish to commit such a heinous act of terrorism. The only Palestinians one can identify with are Mahmud ibn Salim ibn Faruk and his girlfriend.

Concluding comments

Since buying the book, I have since got to know the author Michael Weiss by email and Skype. I commend him for writing this thriller, which also has a message of reconciliation. I recommend the book as an easy and exciting read.