Category: Islam

House of Spies (Gabriel Allon #17)

We expected in this book that Gabriel Allon would stay home, now the Chief of Israeli security and father of twins.

Not so much.

… Daniel Silva’s runaway bestseller The Black Widow was one of 2016’s biggest novels. Now, in House of Spies, Gabriel Allon is back and out for revenge—determined to hunt down the world’s most dangerous terrorist, a shadowy ISIS mastermind known only as Saladin.

Four months after the deadliest attack on the American homeland since 9/11, terrorists leave a trail of carnage through London’s glittering West End. The attack is a brilliant feat of planning and secrecy, but with one loose thread: the French-Moroccan street criminal and ISIS operative who supplied the combat assault rifles. …

Amazon

Click PLAY or watch a TV interview with the author on YouTube.

A TV series in in the works produced by MGM.

Gabriel Allon – Israeli assassin

Gabriel Allon is the main protagonist in Daniel Silva‘s thriller and espionage series that focuses on Israeli intelligence. …

I’ve just finished the final two books in the series to date.

Black Widow is the 16th book. I’m sorry to have to wait for #17 later this year.

In general the books have gotten better and better. Black Widow revolves around ISIS terrorist attacks on western targets.

On the other hand the blatant Pro-Israel bias has become more annoying.

The Allon story has gone on so long that Silva plagiarizes from himself. (Is that a thing?)

He cuts and pastes phrases, sentences and possibly paragraphs from earlier books.

I’ve read all 16 books since Oct 2016.

Addicted.

 

 

 

 

Religious Leaders call for friendship

World’s Top Religious Leaders Issue Rare Joint Appeal

“Our advice is to make friends to followers of all religions.”

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Racists tend to ghettoize. Cling to people who look and think like themselves.

The Fallen Angel by Daniel Silva

Well written, as always, the plot kept me going. It’s one of the best books in the series.

After narrowly surviving his last operation, Gabriel Allon, the wayward son of Israeli intelligence, has taken refuge behind the walls of the Vatican, where he is restoring one of Caravaggio’s greatest masterpieces.

But early one morning he is summoned to St. Peter’s Basilica by Monsignor Luigi Donati, the all-powerful private secretary to His Holiness Pope Paul VII. The body of a beautiful woman lies broken beneath Michelangelo’s magnificent dome. The Vatican police suspect suicide, though Gabriel believes otherwise. So, it seems, does Donati, who calls upon Gabriel to quietly pursue the truth—with one caveat.

My main criticism is that Silva is VERY pro-Israel, anti-Palestine. There’s not the slightest attempt for balance on that issue.

Izmir Atatürk Museum

The little I knew about Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, I liked.

He separated Church and State. Created a model of modernization that more Muslim nations should have emulated.

He was a Turkish army officer, revolutionary, and founder of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President from 1923 until his death in 1938. …

… initiated a rigorous program of political, economic, and cultural reforms with the ultimate aim of building a modern and secular nation-state.

He made primary education free and compulsory, opening thousands of new schools all over the country.

Turkish women received equal civil and political rights during Atatürk’s presidency ahead of many Western countries. …

Atatürk’s foreign policy followed his motto, “peace at home, peace in the world“. …

Despite his radical secular reforms, Atatürk remained broadly popular in the Muslim world.

I didn’t learn much new at the museum in Izmir. But I’m sure most in the nation wished they had Atatürk back as President today.