Necessary Roughness

On the flight home I read the latest in a series of books by Joel C. Rosenberg, The Ezekiel Option. It follows The Last Jihad and The Last Days, and the next book, The Copper Scroll, is due out in August.

The books tell a story that is leading up to the end times. In Jihad, written before Saddam Hussein’s capture, newly discovered oil reserves in the Mediterranean promise peace for Isreal and Palestine until Hussein prepares to launch a nuclear missile at Israel. In Days, the deal to secure financial independence for the two regions is threatened by terrorists who benefited from a poor Palestine.

The Ezekiel Option moves away from the sweetheart oil deal to more global matters. The President of Russia is assassinated and replaced with a czar who funded terrorists. The czar convinces the United Nations (except the U.S.) to support the enforcement of resolutions to remove nuclear weapons from Israel, arguing that it’s the same reason the U.S. led a coalition into Iraq. With the help of Germany, France, and others, Russia mobilizes to invade Israel—leading off with the launch of a nuclear missile.

Throughout this plot a former head of Mossad has the ear of the main character, the top U.S. advisor who brokered the oil deal. He believes the end-times prophecies of Ezekiel are true. In the end an earthquake shakes the earth, and fiery meteors from space destroy the inbound missile and the buildings of the governments of the coalition against Israel.

The advisor, Jon Bennett, undergoes change in his character throughout the series. He moves from atheism to enthusiastic conversion (no time for a baptism apparently) through his discussions with the former Mossad chief, a closet Christian himself. He falls in love with one of his direct reports, who also happens to be a CIA agent.

Rosenburg does an excellent job making the reader maintain interest in his characters. The books flow well, and the action is quite good. With each book the author delves more into end-times prophecy, which sours the milk for this reader. I recommend the first two books, but I’m not sure I’ll buy the next.