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Rating: 
Summary: A good techno-thriller
Review: Almost four decades ago, an Israeli sub heading home vanishedat sea. The crew was presumed dead by most of the world with only a few Mossad officials knowing that the lost sailors were given false identities to go undercover around the world. For instance, one went to America while others hid in Egypt and Iran, etc. Loved ones knew nothing, assuming all were dead. Over the subsequent years, many of these men assumed positions of power so that can complete the tasks assigned to them. By 2002, these men reach the point where they can stop the annihilation of their homeland. The terror begins when two hundred missiles filled with toxic gas hits Tel Aviv killing hundreds of thousands. Israel retaliates in brutal fashion at Iran and Egypt. The Moslem world declares a Jihad that takes the world to the brink of Armageddon with only one person potentially able to stop it by rallying the forces of God to him. SAMSON'S LION contains five distinct parts with each segment narrated by a different Mossad agent. As each story ends, a single plot line emerges that climaxes in a dramatic fashion. Author Alex Wolf tells an exciting story that occasionally slows down with technical detail. Eventually, the tale takes the reader to the spiritual choice between the end of the world or redemption through a man who might be a savior or the devil. This epic saga works because of the strength of its charcaters. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: A good techno-thriller
Review: Almost four decades ago, an Israeli sub heading home vanishedat sea. The crew was presumed dead by most of the world with only a few Mossad officials knowing that the lost sailors were given false identities to go undercover around the world. For instance, one went to America while others hid in Egypt and Iran, etc. Loved ones knew nothing, assuming all were dead. Over the subsequent years, many of these men assumed positions of power so that can complete the tasks assigned to them. By 2002, these men reach the point where they can stop the annihilation of their homeland. The terror begins when two hundred missiles filled with toxic gas hits Tel Aviv killing hundreds of thousands. Israel retaliates in brutal fashion at Iran and Egypt. The Moslem world declares a Jihad that takes the world to the brink of Armageddon with only one person potentially able to stop it by rallying the forces of God to him. SAMSON'S LION contains five distinct parts with each segment narrated by a different Mossad agent. As each story ends, a single plot line emerges that climaxes in a dramatic fashion. Author Alex Wolf tells an exciting story that occasionally slows down with technical detail. Eventually, the tale takes the reader to the spiritual choice between the end of the world or redemption through a man who might be a savior or the devil. This epic saga works because of the strength of its charcaters. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Samson's Lion
Review: It was a fun novel to read. It was hard to put down the excape from reality that this book provides made for a fun time.
Rating: 
Summary: "From the devourer, sustenance, & from the bold, sweetness"
Review: It was last night that I finished reading the 2002 revised edition of Samson's Lion, entitled Aleph Shin. The new title, the name of the secret Mossad operation on which the book is centered, is an acronym using the two Hebrew letters comprising the Hebrew equivalent of "Samson's Lion"- Ari Shimshon. The name of the operation is of great significance, for the Biblical Samson was the greatest undercover agent in the history of our people.
On the back cover, both Rabbis Hillel Goldberg and Daniel Lapin mention their inability to put Alex Wolf's book down. Rabbi Goldberg: "I keep turning the pages. I'm not a spy novel aficionado, but I can't put this down." Rabbi Lapin: "I didn't expect to be inextricably gripped for hours and hours." As I learned shortly after beginning Samson's Lion, they weren't exaggerating in the least.
The year is 1968. An Israeli submarine, the Davar, is lost in the sea and all seventy lives aboard perish. In truth, this is a cover up, the beginning of a Mossad operation wherein those aboard are very much alive, assuming entirely new identities throughout the world serving in capacities to ensure Israel's very survival if and when necessary. At the heart of the story are Mossad agents Alon Barnash (alias Abdallah Ibn Gash) in Egypt, Eli Kedem (alias Farshid Kermani) in Iran, and Benny Harkesef (alias Robert Benson) in America and his son Daniel who will later attain a position of great power and service to the Jewish people.
The year is now 2002 (2004 in Aleph Shin edition) and Israel has been attacked by Middle Eastern enemies. All those decades of effort and toil of those courageous men aboard the Davar will now come to fruition as Israel retaliates. As the world condemns Israel for a response deemed to surpass the severity of the attacks against Israel, the first Jewish president of the United States, Abe Lewis, is in a great predicament as his efforts to persuade Israel to cease its retribution fall on deaf ears. There is more as the greatest conspiracy in US history unfolds through the kidnapping of President Lewis.
In the final section of the book, Apocalypse, thousands of years of Biblical and Rabbinic teachings concerning Moshiach and Redemption converge in these events through the appearance of Menachem Shabazi. Only a giant Torah scholar and talented novelist could provide such entertainment combined with Torah insight and inspiration. Thankfully, in Alex Wolf, we have both.
In addition to experiencing a great entertaining and inspirational read, I learned a great deal of history too, including insight into the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980's, and a glimpse into an ugly, evil, and painful aspect of Israel's history, namely, the kidnapping efforts and attempts to "secularize" those among the thousands of Yemenite Jewish immigrants brought to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet in the late 1940's and early 1950's.
In the special endnote appearing in Aleph Shin, Wolf notes that in "Christian literacy circles", their need to raise awareness about their Messianic beliefs "has been met and has been a huge success." Wolf desires that his Samson's Lion/Aleph Shin similarly "represent a new effort to raise public Messiah-consciousness through literature from a Jewish perspective." May that be so and may we indeed merit the coming of Moshiach NOW!
Rating: 
Summary: Strong Sweet Story
Review: The riddle of Samson's Lion, "Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet," (Shof'tim Judges 14:14)is the operations mantra for 70 Mossad deep cover agents. Alex Wolf's first published mystery, SAMSON'S LION, attempts to weave five story parts into one novel. Four out of the five actually work, though the technical jargon seems to be more placed to justify the author's research than help carry the story. Part Three and Four are set in the United States. Had the real Orthodox Jewish United States Senator Joseph Lieberman been elected Vice President, Wolf's novel, I am sure, would have been on the New Yorker's best selling book list! Wolf's own fictional character is the first Jewish president of the United States. Even more unlikely is Wolf's fictional character born in the US but makes aliyah and becomes the Prime Minister of the State of Y'israel. Part Five, the finale entitled, "Armageddon," becomes the least cohesive section with a character, despite the surprise ending, the reader is not able to identify with or care about. Also disapponting is that the other characters well developed are submerged and lost just like the submarine some 40 years ago which becomes the first stage of the deep cover Mossad operation to protect The Land.
Rating:
Summary: Strong Sweet Story
Review: The riddle of Samson's Lion, "Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet," (Shof'tim Judges 14:14)is the operations mantra for 70 Mossad deep cover agents. Alex Wolf's first published mystery, SAMSON'S LION, attempts to weave five story parts into one novel. Four out of the five actually work, though the technical jargon seems to be more placed to justify the author's research than help carry the story. Part Three and Four are set in the United States. Had the real Orthodox Jewish United States Senator Joseph Lieberman been elected Vice President, Wolf's novel, I am sure, would have been on the New Yorker's best selling book list! Wolf's own fictional character is the first Jewish president of the United States. Even more unlikely is Wolf's fictional character born in the US but makes aliyah and becomes the Prime Minister of the State of Y'israel. Part Five, the finale entitled, "Armageddon," becomes the least cohesive section with a character, despite the surprise ending, the reader is not able to identify with or care about. Also disapponting is that the other characters well developed are submerged and lost just like the submarine some 40 years ago which becomes the first stage of the deep cover Mossad operation to protect The Land.
Rating:
Summary: Great adventure
Review: This is a tremendous book with many twists and turns.
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