The Israel Strikes Passover Cunumdrum

After our lament on how new Egyptian President for life Abdel al-Sisi ruined our planned third Israel Strikes book, valued reader Donald Harris said we should write the damn book anyway.

Oh we had big plans. Massive tank battles in the Sinai, aerial duels over Cairo, daring Israeli commando raids on the coast of Africa, intrepid Israel engineers laying down baily bridges in the Suez, some sort of climactic Israeli moral dilemma...

[Hey, that sounds pretty good-Ed]

I know, right?

Anyhoo....the problem is two fold. These techno-thrillers are supposed to be speculative. Frankly al-Sisi's Egypt is not going to war with Israel. The Egyptians hate terrorism just as much as Charleton Heston's people, and loath the Palestinians even more. All Arabs loath the Palestinians. Also, via the World War 1990 series, we kind of have our modern warfare fix.

I dunno. Maybe a conflict with the Turk?

The Will Stroock Passover Spectacular Part I

Egypt has held a presidential 'election'. The NYTs tells us that:

CAIRO — Early results from Egypt’s election showed President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi headed for a landslide victory with 92 percent of the vote, state media reported Thursday, an unsurprising margin in a race where he eliminated all serious opposition months ago.

And on the eve of Passover, too.

Whatever. This el-Sisi guy is better than the Muslim Brotherhood. Of course we blame him for wrecking the Israel Strikes series. You see, we planned a third Israel Strikes novel in which Israel and Egypt go to war. The Suez crossing scenes write themselves, no?

So if the reader(s) are wondering why those loose-ends in Israel Strikes: War of the Red Sea have never been tied up, blame General al-Sisi.*

Damn you el-Sisi. Damn you to Cecille B DeMille.

*The most important loose-end is the radiological bomb the Iranians manage to pass off to a Haredi Jew who hates secularism.