THE SILENCER

In a first US publication for Anglo-Israeli author Louvish, the Intifada, the Mossad, American wacko fundamentalism, the NYPD, ultra-orthodox West Bank settlers, the CIA, rabid supporters of all or some of the above, as well as the mayor of Jerusalem, fill the much too exciting days of an Israeli journalist who would rather hide among the TV listings. Television writer Joe Dekel is at the center of the bizarre chain of events that begins with the introduction in New York of someone who says he is Dekel's ``silencer''—Didi Schaeffer. According to Didi, a silencer's job is to see that dangerously pro-Palestinian writings such as Dekel has been known to dabble in never see the light of day on this side of the Atlantic. Dekel is in town against his will, covering yet another hopeless peace forum when he would rather be playing video and other domestic games back in Jerusalem, where he and his wife are thinking maybe they'll have a baby. But before he leaves Manhattan, Dekel stumbles into a murder scene where the expiring corpse either curses him or slips him some sensational information. Sorting this out will require further adventures and involvement with a 100-year-old American Jewish supporter of rational solutions to irrational Israeli governance, murderous encounters with the real Didi Schaeffer, who's not a bit like the fake Didi on the West Bank, a crippling run-in with a stun grenade, and an endless stream of threatening heavies, all of whom have interests in the occupied territories. There's a thriller plot here, but Louvish's heart is in the wry wrappings, hours of observations on Israeli political and moral life with always a finger to the ribs. Action fanciers will drift off early, humor fanciers a little later, policy wonks will make it to the end.