The Conspiracies of Dreams

Book excerpt: Jews, Christians, Moslems, and Canaanites all share an ancient dream of possessing the land that lies between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea which they hold sacred. In 1956 an Egyptian spy, Ishmael al Mohammed, is determined to gain information which will reclaim the infant state of Israel for the displaced Palestinian Arabs, one of whom is his mother. While on a secret espionage mission posing as an Israeli, he falls passionately in love with an Israeli woman, Rebecca Silverman. He must decide if he will betray the only person he will ever care for or be true to Islam, Egypt, and his family. A Christian, Danny O'Halloran, has always dreamed of walking the Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem, while a pagan donkey goddess named Palés dreams of being worshipped again by the original inhabitants of Canaan, which was renamed Palestine in her honor. Israeli politicians dream of making Israel a nuclear power while Britain and France conspire to regain the Suez Canal, which the President of Egypt nationalized. Against the backdrop of circumstances leading to the 1956 Suez War between Israel and Egypt a love story which encompasses the forbidden romance of Romeo and Juliet, Delilah's betrayal of Samson, and the treachery of Britain's MI6 double agents unfolds as Ishmael and Rebecca's story spans three millennia of history.