The Project

By Zeʾev Chafets, Zeev Chafets, Ze'ev Chafets

Book Overview

It's 10 years after the Gulf War and Speaker of the House Dewey Goldberg has been sworn in as President of the United States following the accidental deaths of his predecessors. But he soon discovers that Israeli Prime Minister Elihu Barzel may be backing a fundamentalist opponent. Concerned, he dispatches his journalist-friend Charlie Walker to investigate. What Walker discovers is a plan code-named "The Project"--a plan so compelling that it not only jeopardizes the president's chances for reelection, but also the delicate balance of world power.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0072Q22DS
• ISBN13: 9780446605427
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Religion and politics combine for intriguing fun.

This enjoyable thriller wrily comments on the "Who is a Jew?" question, as well as other issues in Israeli-U.S. politics, while weaving a complex tale of intrigue, based on personal, ethnic, religious, and political loyalties.

a great thriller; a tour-de-force

Almost a year has passed since a boating accident propelled the Speaker of the House, Dewey Goldberg, into the White House as the first Jewish President of the United States. The election to determine who will lead America into the next century is almost upon the people and Dewey stands a very good chance of being elected on his own right. All that suddenly changes when rumors spread that the Israeli Prime Minister, Elithu Barzel, is going to publicly support Dewey's opponent, Earl Childes, a Christian southern republican. Having a Jewish legend throw his support to the non-Jewish candidate would destroy Dewey's chances of being elected. Dewey asks his friend Charlie Walker, an award winning reporter, to learn why Barzel is supporting the other guy. ........ Charlie flies to Israel to look into Barzel's past. He quickly learns about a horrifying para-military scenario, THE PROJECT that ties next year date to a fundamentalist belief that Armageddon is coming. The force behind this project is Barzel, who plans a radical change in the global power structure. As Charlie learns more about Barzel, he places himself and even the President in jeopardy from an individual who will not allow anything to stop his mad scheme for a nuclear disaster unlike anything the world could ever have imagined ....... THE PROJECT is a great thriller that adeptly deals with the Middle East crisis and foreign nations interfering in our elections (sound familiar?). However, what makes this tale several notches above the typical thriller is the realistic personalities of the secondary characters. They add a special warmth and friendliness to the tale without corrupting the major themes. Zev Chafets is one of the best writers of the nineties, deserving best seller status for this notable work. ......Harriet Klausner

A page-turner from beginning to end, with great characters.

Chafets has taken his spare and perceptive writing style and applied it to a doomsday scenario to assure the future security of Israel. Along the way he throws in enough improbable twists to drive the plot forward to its dramatic conclusion, the closure of a deal. One of the more memorable lines "He creates a problem so that he can come in and solve it, and while doing so extract what he wanted all along." The Project is a quick and breezy "entertainment" that mixes good humor and informed insights about diplomacy and the intertwining of U.S.-Israeli relations. A must read for anyone fascinated by the Middle East and the U.S. involvement there