Will iconic images recorded in the grooves of an ancient vase unite the Holy Land or rip it further apart?

THE VASE

A novel by Mark M. DeRobertis

Muhsin Muhabi is a Palestinian potter, descended from a long line of potters. His business is run from the same shop owned by his ancestors since the day his forebears moved to Nazareth. The region's conflict saw the death of his oldest son, and rogue terrorists are in the process of recruiting his youngest in their plot to assassinate the Pope and Israeli prime minister.

Professor Hiram Weiss is an art historian at Nazareth’s Bethel University. He is also a Shin Bet operative on special assignment. With the help of fellow agent, Captain Benny Mathias, he plans to destroy the gang responsible for the death of his wife and only child. He puts a bomb in the ancient vase he takes on loan from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.

Mary Levin, the charming assistant to the director of Shin Bet, has lost a husband and most of her extended family to recurring wars and never-ending terrorism. She dedicates her life to the preservation of Israel, but to whom will she dedicate her heart? The brilliant professor from Bethel University? Or the gallant captain who now leads Kidon?

Harvey Holmes, the Sherlock of Haunted Houses, is a Hollywood TV host whose reality show just flopped. When a Lebanese restaurant owner requests his ghost-hunting services, he believes the opportunity will resurrect his career. All he has to do is exorcise the ghosts that are haunting the restaurant. It happens to be located right across the street from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.




Friday, October 8, 2010

Dr. Strangelove


Have you ever seen the movie, Dr. Strangelove? Have you ever heard the term, “Dr. Strangelove” mentioned by someone in reference to politics or policy? It’s a hilarious movie that Stanley Kubrick made the same year as Henry Fonda’s movie, Failsafe. Failsafe, as you may or may not know, is a movie that offers a possible consequence of an accidental nuclear attack by America against the Soviet Union.

In Failsafe, the American president, played by Fonda, orders a nuclear bomb to be dropped on New York City, to prove to the Soviets that the bomb dropped on Moscow was an accident. I suppose the reasoning was that one city wiped out in each country was preferable to an all out nuclear war. I don’t agree with that solution, but whatever…it’s just a movie.

So, anyway, Kubrick‘s movie starred Peter Sellers in three separate roles, and he played each role with hilarious precision. He played the president of the United States, who had to speak to the Soviet premier via hotline in an effort to convince him the imminent attack is an accident. Second, he played a British officer stationed at the American Air Force base from which the attack was launched. And third, he played Dr. Strangelove, an ex-Nazi weapons expert, who is now an advisor to the White House.

In Dr. Strangelove, as in Failsafe, the bomb gets dropped, and a Soviet city gets destroyed. But I must admit the solution in Dr. Strangelove is preferable to the solution in Failsafe. Of course, the conditions are different in Strangelove, as the Russian ambassador divulges some pertinent information that redirects the thought processes of the men meeting in the war room.

I won’t spoil it for you, because if you haven’t seen it, do so, and you’ll be glad you did. It’s a comedy after all, and you’ll find out why the alternate title makes sense: “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”

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