The Bus on Jaffa Road: A Story of Middle East Terrorism and the Search for Justice

by Mike Kelly Narrated by John McLain

Overview

As the morning sunlight crept over the limestone walls of Jerusalem's old city, two young Americans flagged down a bus and got on. It was 6:45 a.m., February 25, 1996-an otherwise ordinary Sunday in Israel. Sara Duker and Matthew Eisenfeld settled into their seats as the door closed on Jerusalem's Number 18 bus which would take them across the spine of this ancient city of hills. On this day, they had risen earlier than normal in the hope of touring an archaeological site. After a few more stops, their bus turned on Jerusalem's Jaffa Road and rolled up a slight hill and stopped again. A young man, who seemed to be a student and was carrying a black duffle bag, got on. No one paid much attention to him, witnesses said later. Students carrying duffle bags or backpacks are a common sight in Jerusalem. But this man was no student. He took a seat. After several more stops, he stood and pushed a button attached to his duffle bag-and set off a huge bomb. Sara and Matthew died in the explosion. So did twenty-four others, along with the bomber. Their grieving families of the Americans set out to get answers and justice.



So begins the story of The Bus on Jaffa Road. The narrative weaves from the streets of Jerusalem to a West Bank refugee camp to the White House, the Congress and a U.S. courtroom where the victims' families filed a lawsuit against Iran for financing the bombing-then to a prison in the Negev desert in Israel where the author confronts the man who build the bomb on the Jaffa Road bus. It is a story that prefigures many of the difficulties of America's "war on terrorism" and reminds us of the intractable nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that continues to this day.

Editorial Reviews

Jewish News

Mike Kelly's skill, besides digging into so much material and amplifying our knowledge base through this own interviews, is in mastering it all and weaving such a tight fabric of understanding elegantly expressed. One could say this is a great book about everything that is touched by a suicide bombing - by all the suicide bombings.

Jewish Book Council

This is a compelling story that will interest readers who follow current events.

Bloomberg

"(Kelly's) account is thorough, searing, and propulsive, and stands as an emblem of the grief that must be felt by every family that loses someone to terrorism." - Bloomberg.com

From the Publisher

Two young Americans are murdered on a bus. From that point on Mike Kelly takes us on a ride through the tortuous mine field of Middle Eastern politics as their families search for justice. The story takes us into the mind of a terrorist and down the corridors of power in Washington. Best of all, it reads like a novel. Read it! You will enjoy it and in the process learn a great deal about our troubled world.”
—Thomas H. Kean, former New Jersey governor and chairman of the 9/11 Commission.


"The Bus on Jaffa Road goes deep below the rhetoric on the "war on terror" and tells the compelling story of what happens to the people who are not killed but whose lives are destroyed by one bomb on one bus."
—Bob Simon, correspondent, CBS 60 Minutes


“Mike Kelly has made a significant contribution to the literature on terrorism and counterterrorism in The Bus on Jaffa Road. By focusing on one tragic event, Kelly manages to evoke the emotions, policies, legalities and moralities surrounding an act of terror and efforts to make some good come out of evil. In a judicious way, Kelly helps us empathize with the Duker and Eisenfeld families while presenting the complexities of the struggle to punish and deter the backer of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is a book well worth reading.”
—Abraham Foxman, National Director, Anti-Defamation League


"Mike Kelly has delivered an elegantly written, deeply reported account of the terrorist attack
on Jaffa Road that prefigured many of the suicide bombings we have seen since. He brings to life the lives of many victims, including the Americans who were killed, and gets inside the heads of the Palestinian perpetrators and the Israeli counterterrorism officials who investigated the incident. It's a gripping account of a fascinating episode in the history of Israel and of terrorism in general."
—Peter Bergen, CNN terror analyst and author of “Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden, from 9/11 to Abbottabad”

“In tackling perhaps the hardest subject to write on, a suicide bombing, Kelly will grab you and not let you go until you read the last page. The Bus on Jaffa Road is destined to become a literary classic. Non-fiction at its very best. Mike Kelly has written one of the most compelling, spellbinding, and exquisitely written narratives of our time. Based on the story of two young American lives brutally cut short by a suicide bombing in Israel, The Bus on Jaffa Road is one of those rare books that tells a story that is absolutely riveting. This book will resonate with every ounce of intellectual and emotional fiber in your body. Reading this book was a transformative experience for me. Kelly’s talent lies not only in re-creating the scene of the crime in hauntingly factual story telling but in capturing the essence of a love story—the love of a young American couple whose lives were horrifically ended in a violent nanosecond by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. The story is told is vividly on so many levels and through the hearts and minds of the tormented surviving parents left to grieve forever; through the Israeli counter-terrorist agents whose mission is to track down the Palestinian masterminds of this bombing; through the doctors and medical rescuers on the ground at the moment of impact; through the byzantine legal proceedings in the US and Israel; and through the eyes of an unvarnished and unrepentant killer, who to Kelly’s credit, is revealed to be an unromantic mass murderer. This is a book for all of time and humanity, and the lack thereof. It is also the story of the indomitable will of the human spirit to make peace with that which is unpeacable. Kelly has written a masterpiece. “
—Steven Emerson, executive director, The Investigative Project on Terrorism and author of numerous books on terrorism


"A meticulous, beautiful book about terrorism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and two extraordinary young people whose absence haunts us to this day."
—Peter Beinart: former editor of New Republic and author of The Crisis in Zionism

“Solid reporting from a deeply committed journalist.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Bloomberg.Com

"(Kelly's) account is thorough, searing, and propulsive, and stands as an emblem of the grief that must be felt by every family that loses someone to terrorism." - Bloomberg.com

Kirkus Reviews

2014-07-16
A spiral of horror and reckoning emerges from the death of a young American couple in a terrorist bombing in Israel. By the mid-1990s, suicide bombs detonated by Palestinian terrorists and sponsored by Iran's jihadist organizations had begun to erode the Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and Palestine—indeed, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin lost his life to a Jewish fundamentalist for even attempting to make peace. In this investigation, journalist Kelly (Fresh Jersey: Stories from an Altered State, 2000, etc.) traces the ramifications from several of those ominous early bombings—e.g., the deaths on targeted Israeli buses of Americans Alisa Flatow, in 1995, and Sara Duker and Matthew Eisenfeld in 1996. Oddly, Flatow and Duker had attended the same high school; their bereft parents became friends and worked together toward landmark lawsuits intended by the Clinton administration to hold the terrorist powers accountable: in this case, Iran. The author fleshes out the victims' lives as aspiring students and young people full of promise. Sadly, the victims were simply caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, as the assassin explained to the author (also to 60 Minutes), who visited him in prison well after the tragedy: "The target was the Israeli occupation," he insisted. Kelly looks at the motivations of the suicide bombers, but he narrates mostly from the Israeli point of view. The bulk of the work follows the lawsuits filed by the victims' families, encouraged by President Bill Clinton's passage of several anti-terrorism measures; though they won many millions of dollars against Iran, they would see only a fraction of it. The author works the personal and political angles for a deeply intertwined look at the horrendous standoff that comprises today's Israeli-Palestinian reality. Solid reporting from a deeply committed journalist.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170722112
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	08/14/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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