Julie Salamon, An Innocent Bystander: The Killing of Leon Klinghoffer

In Conversation with Gail Evans, Former EVP, CNN; Bestselling Author

In October 1985, Leon Klinghoffer, a disabled Jewish New Yorker, boarded the Achille Lauro with his wife to celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary. Four days later, four Palestinian fedayeen hijacked the ship and took the passengers and crew hostage. Klinghoffer was shot in the head, his body and wheelchair thrown overboard. His murder became a flashpoint in the struggle between Israelis and Arabs, giving Americans a horrifying preview terrorism hitting home.

An Innocent Bystander is a masterful work of journalism that dispels the hijacking’s mythology; precipitating tragic reverberations for the wives and sons of Abu al-Abbas, the Palestinian mastermind behind the hijacking; and the family of Alex Odeh, a Palestinian-American murdered in Los Angeles in a brutal act of retaliation. This geopolitical thriller is filled with the tension wrought by terrorism and its repercussions today.

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