The project

The time is the turn of the century. Catapulted into office by abrupt tragedy, Dewey Goldberg is the first Jewish president of the United States. Though a thoroughly Americanized politico from a blue-collar district in Michigan, Goldberg knows he'll need a solid vote from his coreligionists in the bruising, upcoming reelection. Yet his greatest obstacle comes from a wholly unexpected quarter: Elihu Barzel, the prime minister of Israel. A miraculous survivor of World War II Poland in his youth, Barzel created an ever-growing legend for himself in Israel's birth and years of struggling growth. Inscrutable to even his closest friends, he is both the most well-known and the most mysterious man in the country, inspiring either devout loyalty or undying hatred. Now, for reasons known mostly to himself, he is about to throw his support to the American president's opponent, an ultraconservative, apocalypse-minded fundamentalist Christian. Charlie Walker is a prizewinning investigative journalist and Dewey Goldberg's confidant. Dispatched to Israel by presidential request, he gradually picks up the trail of an operation known only as The Project, a grand, treacherously shrouded stratagem, w