17 BEN GURION

Pure sensation and suspense triumph over any higher hopes one may have for this Middle Eastern novel of terrorist infiltration and intrigue. Major Saul Lahav of Israeli intelligence has submitted a plan for a secret strike team against his country's enemies, a team unattached to any government organization. The plan is shelved until a Russian-sponsored Palestinian group of the same model blows up an entire Israeli village and goes after the Sinai oil fields. Lahav is granted his undercover command but it costs him his 24-year marriage; his son, an internist, died two years earlier when his field hospital was shelled. Now Lahav is in love with Shana, a fellow intelligence officer, but distrusts himself and the life of duty. The story roves through Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Dresden, and Russia as he tracks down the terrorists and destroys their bases. Plenty of background on the characters fails to lift anyone from his stereotype, but the action does move, and move, and move, though the density of foreign names and nouns is sometimes heavy going.