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

Kelly, Mike

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0762780371 ISBN 13: 9780762780372

Publisher: Lyons Press, 2014

Synopsis

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 am, 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 24 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.

About this title

About the Author

Mike Kelly has been a journalist for more than three decades. He is the author of two books as well as numerous prize-winning newspaper projects and columns for The Bergen Record, a daily newspaper in northern New Jersey. 

His assignments have taken him to Africa, Northern Ireland, Israel (including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), and Iraq.  He has covered the 9/11 attacks and the clean-up of Ground Zero, the “Good Friday Peace Accords” in Belfast, the Iraq War in which he followed a National Guard unit from training to the combat zone, Hurricane Katrina (in New Orleans), the impeachment of President Clinton, and the 9/11 Commission hearings in Washington, D.C.

Since the 9/11 attacks, he has devoted much of his time to covering terrorism, from Ground Zero to Washington, D.C. (with the 9-11 Commission) to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (to write about the terrorist detention prisons) and to Malaysia.   In traveling to Malaysia, Kelly traced the recycling journey of a single steel beam from the World Trade Center.  He then tracked down the people on the trade center floor supported by that steel beam and traced how they were rebuilding their lives.  While in Malaysia, he also found the apartment where the 9-11 plot was first planned.  Later, in New Jersey, he found the tiny motel room where two of the hijackers at that Malaysia meeting ended up staying before carrying out the plot.  In 2011, for the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Kelly found the survivors form the 70th floor that he had profiled a decade earlier and updated their lives.

Kelly was named the top columnist in America in 2004 and in 2011 by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. In 2001, the New Jersey Press Association named him “Journalist of the Year” for his reporting from the Middle East and from Ground Zero.  Other major honors include New York Deadline Club prize for column writing, the Meyer Berger Award from Columbia University, and a national Clarion Award for feature writing.  He was also among 25 New York area journalists singled out by the New York City Fire Department for a special honor for his coverage from the site of the World Trade Center.

Kelly is a regular guest on television as well as numerous radio programs. He has appeared on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" as a guest commentator and was a guest host for the WNYC radio show, “On The Line.”  He has also been featured on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” on the “CBS Evening News,” and on the award-winning PBS program, “Bill Moyers Journal.”

Kelly’s 1995 non-fiction book about racial turmoil, "Color Lines: The Troubled Dreams of Racial Harmony In an American Town," was called "American journalism at its best" by The Washington Post and a "stunning piece of American social history" by Pulitzer-prize winning author J. Anthony Lukas.

In 2000, Camino Press of Philadelphia published a collection of his columns, "Fresh Jersey: Stories from an Altered State."  Kelly graduated from Syracuse University with degrees in American studies and journalism, and is currently working on a masters degree in historical theology at Fordham University in New York. He is married and the father of two adult daughters. He lives in Teaneck, N.J.

Review

"(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 (Bloomberg)

" The Bus on Jaffa Road is an eye-opening in-depth recreation that I could not put down. If you want history with a human face on it, this is a book you'll want to read."-Rick Francona, CNN analyst

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 News)

This is a compelling story that will interest readers who follow current events. (Jewish Book Council)

“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

About this edition

• Publisher: Lyons Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0762780371
• ISBN 13: 9780762780372
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320