Fic­tion

Oper­a­tion Beth­le­hem: An Espi­onage Thriller 

By – March 18, 2024

Feel­ing that he is fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of Spe­cial Oper­a­tions Exec­u­tive Han­nah Senesh, Daniel is fin­ish­ing up his train­ing for accep­tance into the Mossad. He has trained for the IDF elite unit and jumped as a para­troop­er. This time, he is jump­ing into ene­my ter­ri­to­ry as the final test of his train­ing. Born in France, but hav­ing always con­sid­ered him­self an out­sider, Daniel has dreamed of play­ing a crit­i­cal role in the secu­ri­ty of Israel. Now he’s tak­ing his accu­mu­lat­ed knowl­edge and putting it to the test.

Right from the start, things seem to go wrong. Daniel has a stormy, explo­sive tem­per. A pre­vi­ous life expe­ri­ence has made him quick to action — but some­times an intel­li­gence offi­cer has to have infi­nite patience. On more than one occa­sion, his quick tem­per gets him in trouble.

Daniel leaves the Mossad under a dark cloud, and he wants to redeem him­self so he can move for­ward with his life. Armed with pic­tures and mem­o­ries of con­ver­sa­tions with his grand­fa­ther, he believes there is a nation­al trea­sure buried under a hos­pi­tal. Daniel goes under­cov­er at the hos­pi­tal as a vol­un­teer care­giv­er, which gives him access to the grounds. As he builds his cov­er sto­ry and uncov­ers clues, he is unaware of oth­ers watch­ing him. Can he find the nation­al trea­sure and clear his name before he’s in dan­ger of dis­rupt­ing a mis­sion to which he’s get­ting too close?

This thrilling, sus­pense­ful nov­el is full of unex­pect­ed twists and turns. It will keep the read­er con­cerned about Daniel’s safe­ty. The author, Yariv Inbar, uses a pseu­do­nym because he spent many years work­ing in sen­si­tive posi­tions in the Israeli intel­li­gence com­mu­ni­ty. He brings a unique, authen­tic per­spec­tive to the subject.

Mer­le Eis­man Car­rus resides in New Hamp­shire. She received her Mas­ters of Jew­ish Stud­ies from Hebrew Col­lege and is a grad­u­ate of Emer­son Col­lege. Mer­le is the Nation­al Pres­i­dent of the Bran­deis Nation­al Com­mit­tee. She leads books dis­cus­sion groups and author inter­views. She writes book reviews for var­i­ous pub­li­ca­tions. She blogs her book reviews at biteofthebookworm@​blogspot.​com

Discussion Questions

Our pro­tag­o­nist, Daniel, has some­how lost his way, both pro­fes­sion­al­ly and per­son­al­ly, and this sto­ry pulls us in quick­ly as he is dri­ven to seek redemp­tion. Writ­ten under a nom de plume by an author with deep insight into the Mossad, Oper­a­tion Beth­le­hem trav­els with Daniel as he pur­sues a cau­tious hero’s jour­ney to uncov­er some mean­ing­ful secrets.

Daniel begins work as a vol­un­teer at a psy­chi­atric hos­pi­tal in Beth­le­hem, and nur­tures new rela­tion­ships with the diverse peo­ple he meets. This riv­et­ing tale of espi­onage is com­pli­cat­ed by the very human con­tours of Daniel’s life. The slow gath­er­ing infor­ma­tion builds to a page-turn­ing denouement.

Oper­a­tion Beth­le­hem leaves read­ers with inti­mate insights about the strug­gle between would-be ter­ror­ists and the mil­i­tary oper­a­tives who strive to keep Israel safe. The author includes cap­ti­vat­ing details about dai­ly life in this metrop­o­lis in the West Bank, includ­ing vivid descrip­tions of bor­der cross­ings and fam­i­ly and reli­gious rituals.

Even if you think spy nov­els aren’t for you, this book will pull you in. You won’t regret a moment of being immersed in the exhil­a­rat­ing world of Oper­a­tion Beth­le­hem