Arab or Jew? Either way, they were damned. Alone and in secrecy, a pair of star-crossed lovers battle for survival in a world seething with spies and informers. Israel’s greatest fear becomes a reality in Benjamin Eric Hill’s audacious and thrilling debut, Friend of My Enemy.

Vividly portraying the characters behind Mideast headlines, this story shows why the conflict is so intractable, why the violence is so pervasive. Christina Goryeb: an idealistic Palestinian lawyer blackmailed by terrorists to smuggle explosives. Chaim Asher: the Mossad’s top agent whose desire for a mysterious Palestinian woman shatters his most deeply held beliefs. Shlomo Arendt: Head of Arab Affairs in the Shin Bet driven by an intense nationalism that could lead to Israel’s destruction. Hamad Taleb: Mastermind of the Lions of Allah, a murderous enemy, willing to sacrifice everyone’s life for Jihad but his own. Rabbi Ben Yusuf: Messianic leader of Israeli settlers who would sacrifice the Jewish State on an altar of blood for the sake of the Jewish people. The stench of gunpowder and fierce passions for a beloved land ignite every page. Friend of My Enemy will grip you with relentless suspense right up to its white-knuckle ending.

Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski reports that Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty has upgraded her projections for shipment of Apple’s iPad from 750,000 to 2.5 million between now and the end of May. And she thinks shipments for the year will be as many as 10 million of which 6 million might be sold, twice as much as earlier projections. Details here.

Publishers are scrambling to cash in on the anticipated bonanza, but first they have to work out their business model with Apple (see Apple Promoting a New (and Radical!) Business Model for Selling E-Books?).  Although it appears on the surface of it to be a favorable one for publishers, giving them better control over their product and a larger piece of the pie, their rush to sign up could run them athwart of their contractual relationship with Apple arch-rival Amazon.

The Morgan Stanley analyst speculated that “Negative investor sentiment on the iPad centers on the lack of a ‘killer app’ or new technology.” What investors are now realizing is that the iPad is the Killer App. It doesn’t need to produce some paradigm-shifting application – it just has to provide lots and lots of apps that everybody needs, which happens to be what Apple does.  And one of those apps is an alternative to Amazon’s Kindle, especially the tablet sized Kindle DX, which is closest in dimension to the iPad.  So maybe “Kindle Killer App” is the more appropriate term.

For PC Mag blogger Sascha Segan’s fine analysis of the iPad-Kindle rivalry, and to learn who he thinks the real losers in the showdown may be, click here.

Richard Curtis