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.




Thursday, February 24, 2011

Characters, THE VASE - The Villains!

So now we talk about the bad guys. Every story has bad guys, no? Well, then, almost every story does, and THE VASE certainly does. And who can be worse bad guys than terrorists? After all, they’re murderers. Child killers even. And that’s about as low as a bad guy can get. And the terrorists in THE VASE are all of that. We see in a flashback the results of an uprising they caused, and the tragedy it truly is. Several lives are lost and several more are impacted horribly. Fathers lose sons, husbands lose wives, and hatred escalates out of control.

So we have Hakim Khaleel, himself a tragic figure with a tragic past. Raised in a slum, that later became a state park, he holds no warmth to anything Jewish. To him, Jews are oppressors, who have occupied Palestine, his homeland, and rule with no regard to Palestinian interests. He is Hamas, at first, but rebels against his own leader when he makes peace with Israel. To bring home his fight, he plans on assassinating the Israeli prime minister, the visiting Pope, and even his own Hamas president. He has a gang of six wayward individuals, which includes his right hand man, Rashad Aziz, and together, they recruit youngsters as suicide bombers.

So that’s all scumbag stuff. Or is it? Consider he doesn’t do it for money. He doesn’t do it for fame. And he doesn’t do it for advancement within any organization. His ultimate purpose? To liberate Palestine from Israeli control. But do his means justify his end? Certainly not to any reasonable person. But who said he was reasonable? In his mind, he’s perfectly justified. But is he living a dream…or a nightmare?

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