The Last Israelis [Kindle Edition]

Noah Beck (Author)

Book Description

Apocalyptic military fiction with a powerful message. Iran has nukes. Israel’s leader is hospitalized. History is now up to 35 Israelis. Ethnically diverse. Ideologically divided. On a nuclear-armed submarine.
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MORE DETAILS:

In this gripping doomsday thriller "ripped from the headlines," Iran has threatened to destroy Israel while developing the nuclear capability to do so.

Struck by a medical emergency, Israel’s Prime Minister falls unconscious just as military action is needed to stop Iran’s nukes.

History is now up to 35 Israelis aboard the Dolphin – a powerful submarine armed with nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.

Ship unity is crucial to mission success, but deep conflicts rise to the surface among crewmembers who are ethnically diverse and ideologically divided.

Tensions boil further from the rivalry between the captain and his deputy, and a childhood tragedy that quietly haunts a younger sailor whose psychological wounds could explode at any time.

Thus, in addition to the naval action and plot twists found in military thrillers and war fiction, character study and psychological suspense also feature prominently in the novel.

On their suspenseful voyage to Armageddon, the submariners must confront each other -- and pulse-pounding threats at sea -- before facing an unthinkable dilemma.

It will be the toughest decision of their lives – and it will determine the fate of the Middle East.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Gripping, chilling...brings to mind...“Crimson Tide,” “The Hunt For Red October” and “U-571.” You’ll feel like you’re on the sub with the world on the brink of disaster. No matter what political side you're on, it's a must-read.

 ...Don’t start reading this novel if you have somewhere to be. You’ll probably miss your appointment.

--Alan Zeitlin, in NY Blueprint

"The Last Israelis" is full of surprises and unpredictable twists. The story has enough page-turning naval action to qualify as a military and geopolitical novel about a Middle East Armageddon, but it also entertains under the genre of psychological thrillers. The submarine space in which most of the story takes place provides a kind of social experiment that is more intense and compelling than any reality show: 35 men from completely diverse backgrounds who must survive or die together under regular and sometimes life-threatening challenges.

In addition to all of the human drama, the novel has a deeply philosophical element that provides all of the deliberative suspense of "Twelve Angry Men." The diverse submariners must struggle with the weightiest of moral questions as they vigorously debate how to make the toughest decision of their lives.

--Max Shaw in Israel National News

The book provides a picture of Israelis at work in one of the most claustrophobic and intense environments in the world -- weeks at a time in a submerged submarine in hostile waters...How each man got to be a member of the submarine force is part of the story, and [the] crew's diversity serves as an explanation for the views held in [their] debates on...the proper Israeli strategy.

"The Last Israelis" is a great read on a subject as current as the headlines, and the book poses a situation where none of the choices are good or easy.

--Richard Baehr in American Thinker

[The novel paints] a frightening picture of what the world could look like after Iran goes nuclear: a doomed Middle East with a nightmare scenario that hopefully never leaves the realm of fiction.

Most of the Armageddon thriller takes place aboard the Dolphin submarine, Israel’s "second-strike" answer to the existential threat posed by a nuclear Iran...The Dolphin’s crew members – and their discussions – are fascinating because they reflect the complexity and diversity of Israeli society.

There are descendants of Holocaust survivors; native Arabic speakers (one Christian and one Druze); the son of Persian Jews who escaped from the Iranian revolution of 1979; an Ethiopian who crossed Sudan by foot as a child to reach Israel; religious Jews who serve on a mostly secular crew; the atheist son of a Soviet Refusenik; a submariner who holds staunchly right-wing views and another who secretly attends leftist rallies; and a homosexual whose parents were among the Vietnamese refugee boat-people saved by Israel in 1977.

How do all of these people get along during months away from home, living in close quarters, facing deadly threats at sea? Their voyage has enough naval action and drama to rival the suspense of a Tom Clancy novel.

But the book is also an intellectual thriller, featuring some riveting debates about war, ethics, geopolitics, religion, and the protection of minorities. The author does an excellent job of giving voice to every political and philosophical perspective, and thereby shows the depth, diversity, and nuance of the Israeli body politic.

--Karen Brown in "Israel Today"

About the Author

Noah Beck has been telling stories and writing creatively since he was a child growing up on the West Coast of the USA. Despite early literary leanings, his two Ivy League degrees (or, more precisely, the debt that accompanied them) diverted him to over a decade of corporate jobs. He kept his sanity with extensive journaling and globetrotting to over fifty countries, while maintaining a large collection of story ideas waiting to be developed when he finally decided to turn his real passion into a career. In 2012, world events provided the final catalyst that Noah needed to start writing full-time. As a news junkie concerned about the many dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran, Noah worried that time was running out for a solution to be found. With effective sanctions in place far too late and Iran skillfully manipulating diplomatic discussions to continue its nuclear enrichment activities, he feared that the international community might actually fail to stop the threat. Thus, Noah decided to drop everything, quit his job, and write a cautionary tale that highlights the perils of a nuclear Iran, in the hope of contributing to and influencing the public debate. The result of that effort is the military and psychological thriller titled “The Last Israelis.”

Product Details

• File Size: 460 KB
• Print Length: 271 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1482774372
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B008HEFVI2
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #324 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > War
  • #5 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > War
  • #70 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Timely and scary-real September 14, 2012

By Daniel Berger VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

What's in this book is what Benjamin Netanyahu is thinking about. Right now.

This nuclear thriller couldn't be more timely, what with Iran getting closer to the bomb and escalating its smack talk against Israel, which meanwhile must try to remain in step with a United States tired of war, its leaders dreaming instead of making nice with the Muslim world.

The book follows the crew of a nuclear-armed Israeli submarine dispatched abruptly as Iran tensions dramatically escalate. A sister sub has been attacked by Iran. Just as he faces his toughest call, the Israeli Prime Minister is incapacited with a stroke, a la Sharon. No spoilers here, but at some point the officers and crew find themselves having to make decisions they never thought they'd have to make.

In a way, it's a parable. It's not that long - half the length of a standard thriller - and focuses more on dialogue and characterization than on bang-bang. It would make a better play than movie.

Author Noah Beck doesn't spare the military hardware and is utterly convincing writing about sub operations. I don't knowwhether he ever served on one, in any case he did his homework, but this book isn't really about that. It's about the moral conflicts created by the possibility of nuclear war, a possibility Israel must face as getting closer every day.

And they're a heterogenous group, as much as the Israeli society they defend. We meet many of them - the crew only has 35 people - in some detail. There's the stalwart captain and his peacenik deputy, both grandchildren of Holocaust survivors but with radically different takeaways from that heritage. There's the one whose family was ripped to shreds by a suicide bomber's attack.... There's the Ethiopian Jew, deeply religious, airlifted as a tot out of the Middle Ages to an Israel his family hadn't even known existed, one where they nevertheless face some racism. There's the Persian Jew, whose parents were smuggled out, losing their business and property when the Ayatollah came to power. There's the Indian Jew, incongruouslyl fascinated by all things Brooklyn. There's the Russian Jew, atheistic and secular, totally atuned to anti-Semitism.

And there are several who aren't Jewish: a gay Vietnamese Israeli (really) from a family of boat people offered refuge by Israel when no other country would accept them. A Druze and an Arab Christian who quietly but only occasionally speak Arabic to each other. Interestingly, when push comes to shove, it's the non-Jews who are the most hawkish, partly because they realize Jews aren't the only religious minorities pushed around in the Middle East.

The book, though, is very Jewish and very Israeli. The sailors are family oriented to an extent unlikely in other countries. The pains taken to morally analyze a gravely complicated situation and to view it from a dozen different perspectives is positively Talmudic.

Beck brings to bear on the question of nuclear war many of the perspectives that might be found in Israel's society - religious vs. secular, hawk vs. dove, right vs. left, immigrant vs. native born. He portrays what Iranian nuclear ambitions really mean for the only nation in the world that must actively consider the possibility of being nuked - a nation where the national motto is "Never Again" and the national axiom is "when they say they're going to kill us, they mean it."

His book is both a message and a warning to America: what needs to be done to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions, and what may happen if the world vacillates too long.

Because don't forget: Armageddon is in Israel. Read more ›

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Existential Military Thriller July 19, 2012

By Kevin Joseph VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The Last Israelis is unlike any thriller I've read before, and I mean that in a (mostly) good way. Its basic setting and concept call to mind military thrillers like The Hunt for Red October, but Noah Beck approaches the storytelling craft in a unique way. Beck is less interested in penning intricate plot twists and pulse-pounding action scenes than he is in creating a plausible doomsday scenario that highlights the contemporary threat that Iran's nuclear ambitions pose to the State of Israel. This one is right out of the newspaper folks, and should be required reading for our world leaders.

Beck's interest in showcasing intellectual debate between his characters becomes evident early on, when the crew of the Dolphin is granted a brief shore leave to reunite with their families. He takes this opportunity to establish the back story for Captain Daniel Zion, his impotent deputy Yisrael, and other key members of the submarine's thirty-five-man crew. This stage-setting embues his characters with distinct personalities and motivations that later color the positions they take when the Dolphin loses contact with its command structure and must determine whether to unleash its arsenal of ten nuclear warheads on Iran.

The novel grabbed and held my interest because of the authenticity of the politics, the realistic description of the submariners' craft, and the thought-provoking quality of the existential debate that occurs among the crew. In particular, I found the arguments over the moral justification for targeting a civilian population with weapons of mass destruction to be nuanced and thorough.

But The Last Israelis interested me more in the vein of a compelling essay or punchy op-ed piece, than in the manner of a great novel.... Beck has a tendency to tell rather than show, as many passages serve the single purpose of conveying information rather than moving the plot forward. He also tends to over-use flashbacks and lapse into lengthy dialogue that sounds more like an exchange between college professors than banter among seamen. As Beck becomes more comfortable with the craft of storytelling, I expect that he will find ways to influence the public debate on critical subjects in a novel that feels a little less like an essay. Read more ›

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't Stop Reading this Powerful Cautionary Tale! August 24, 2012

By art8art

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Finally! A book that is a wake up call to the world about what we're facing if Iran gets a nuclear bomb. What did all of the P5+1 talks accomplish in the end? Zilch. Nada. A nuclear-armed Iran, maybe. The author shows the broader impact of this frightening possibility but also lets us experience it through the eyes of the 35 men who may have to respond militarily to this threat.

As someone whose parents had to flee the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran, I thought that the novel was especially powerful. One of the characters on the submarine has a similar background and there is a really haunting chapter dealing with the mixed feelings he has because of his complex and mixed Iranian-Israeli identity.

It is a riveting plot that should definitely be made into a movie. Yes, the story slows down a little at times so that readers can meet all of the characters but these characters are fascinating people. And through them we learn the complex and varied story of Israel and the diverse people who populate that country. The ending of the novel is also so intense (and unpredictable) that you have to keep reading, even when it slows down -- the payoff is totally worth it. Get this book!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "humanity is all we have and all that illuminates an otherwise dark world" May 25, 2013

By Cheryl Stout TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

"The Last Israelis" is a different sort of post-apocalyptic novel. It is a too-real story, no, make that treatise, on Israeli/Iranian relations and the imminent threat of nuclear and chemical warfare between the two countries.

I could tell this is a subject very close to the author's heart. In some ways that's good as it shows in the passion he shows for the subject. In some ways that's not so great - this is a novel and not a textbook and at times the long litany of historical facts got to be a bit overpowering. He used his dialogue between characters to impart the history and that made the dialogue stilted at times.

Besides the history, there was a lot of philosophical discussion about nuclear warfare, too, and that that became a bit pedantic at times.

All that written, though - I liked the book. It made me think. I learned from it. The characters were well drawn and sympathetic. I loved the submarine trivia and scenes.

I understand there is a second edition coming out of the book and I am betting it'll clean up a lot of the items I had problems with in the story.

If you are interested in post-apocalyptic fiction or military thrillers, I think you will enjoy this offering.

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#76 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

#97 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers

#76 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

#97 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers