CaliforniaRepublic - The Copper Scroll And The Battle For Jerusalem by Joel Rosenberg

My book, The Copper Scroll hits bookstores August 1st.

Like the novels before it, it feels ripped from the headlines, though it was all written last year. The Copper Scroll centers on a battle between Israel and her enemies over control of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and the West Bank, just after a cataclysmic war in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. The novel actually opens with the hunt for a terrorist suicide bomber in the train tunnels under Washington D.C., eerily similar to the plot the FBI just uncovered of suicide bombers from Lebanon who were planning to blow up the train tunnels under New York City.

The Copper Scroll

Contributor
Joel
Rosenberg

Joel C. Rosenberg is the New York Times best-selling author of THE LAST JIHAD (2002), THE LAST DAYS (2003), and THE EZEKIEL OPTION (2005), with more than one million copies in print. He previously served as a senior advisor to several U.S. and Israeli leaders, including Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky, and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has been interviewed on more than 300 radio and TV shows, including ABC's "Nightline," CBN's 700 Club, CNN Headline News, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, the Michael Reagan Show, the Rush Limbaugh Show and the Sean Hannity Show.. Website - [go to Rosenberg Index]

A bit of context: The Ezekiel Option, as my readers know, focused on a Russian-Iranian alliance with Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Libya and several other Middle Eastern countries designed to surround Israel and wipe the Jewish State off the map. It was based on the Biblical prophecies found in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. What was interesting to me in writing that novel was that Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48 were about the rise of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in the end of days. It got me thinking: the Hebrew prophets and the Christian Apostles who wrote the Bible were unanimous that a Jewish Temple would be built in the last days, but how? Everyone today knows that any effort by religious Jews to build the Third Temple on the site where the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aksa Mosque currently stand could unleash the wrath of a billion Muslims around the world. So how might we get from where we are today to a Third Jewish Temple? What's more could it happen in our lifetime?

I decided to write The Copper Scroll in pursuit of those questions -- questions about the battle for control of Jerusalem, and the relevance of Bible prophecy in our times, and how religious passions in Israel and among Israel's enemies could lead to cataclysmic new dangers in the region and throughout the world.

What's intrigued me in the past few weeks -- in the lead up to the novel's release -- is that this new war that Iran and Syria have unleashed against Israel via Hezbollah and Hamas appears to be the opening skirmishes in a deadly Islamic plan to liquidate Israel and liberate Jerusalem. The mainstream media is not talking about this. They are, instead, talking about peace plans and cease-fires and diplomatic overtures to Syria and Iran. But none of these efforts are going to work. Why? Because the coalition arrayed against Israel is not interested in "land for peace" or adjusting the borders or economic incentives or finding a way to live side-by-side with Israel. They want to exterminate Israel and rule Jerusalem for Islam.

Consider the following quotes:

“We have liberated the south. Next we'll liberate Jerusalem.”
-- Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah in the spring of 2000

“Our mission is to liberate Jerusalem and purify the al-Aqsa Mosque….God is leading us to victory and liberation.”
-- Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, February 14, 2006

“Israel must be…wiped off the map.”
-- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, October 28, 2005, speaking on “Jerusalem Day,” dedicated to launching a jihad to “liberate Jerusalem”

“The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies civilians and military is an individual duty for every Muslim…to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [in Jerusalem] from their grip….”
-- Osama bin Laden, February 23, 1998

"[We will wage a] jihad to liberate Jerusalem.”
-- Yasser Arafat, May 10, 1994

The goal of these leaders and their followers could not be more clear. The danger is that this battle for Jerusalem is not only escalate but could spill over, and trigger a new wave of terrorist attacks against the United States and our allies.

Consider the following stories:

* 2,000 Hezbollah terrorists ready to attack American, Israeli interests
* Hezbollah sleeper cells put on standby
* MI5 Fears Hezbollah Attacks In Britain

That said, will the fictional events of The Copper Scroll come true as various plots lines in my previous novels seem to have? It's too early to say. But I invite you to read this one for yourself, and let me know what you think. CRO