Posted on November 5, 2025
The spy who stayed out of the heat
Daniel Silva struck publishing gold with his overtly Israeli secret agent Gabriel Allon, but after October 7, that fictional spy’s file was inappropriately redacted
AUG 5, 2025
Some of the many published books by Daniel Silva.
For 26 years, readers have thrilled to the exploits of Gabriel Allon, the Israeli James Bond, created by American writer Daniel Silva.
Before publishing The Kill Artist in 2000, Silva was a mid-list author. With the charismatic Gabriel Allon, he hit pay dirt. When we meet the dashing Allon, he has given up spying to return to his vocation as an art restorer – a recurring theme in the books. But whenever the State of Israel needs his services, his crusty mentor, Ari Shamron, draws him back to Israel. He never failed to heed the call to help his homeland.
Until October 7, 2023.
Silva releases a new Gabriel Allon novel every July – usually on my birthday — so I have an entire shelf of books I have received as gifts, many signed by the author.
Two books ago, Allon retired as head of what Silva labels The Office (the Mossad) and moved with his insipid child-wife to Italy to work full-time as an art restorer. A move he has made many times over the course of 26 books.
To my shock, in this year’s book, An Inside Job, the courageous spy who tracked down and assassinated the murderers of the 1972 Israeli Olympic team does not even have the Jewish state on his mind. Whenever Silva mentions Allon’s previous career as a spy, he pointedly omits that the country he spied for was Israel. There are no references to his former Israeli colleagues, who previously accompanied him in missions outside Israel. The word “Israel” does not appear anywhere in the book or on the jacket flap, as it has in previous years.
While many Israelis do choose to live outside the country for different reasons, the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas and June’s Iran War brought them flooding back to do their duty. Israelis stranded in Greece on June 13 hired yachts at their own expense to return to Israel to join their army units.
Not Gabriel Allon. The October 7 slaughter of Israelis on the Gaza border and Hamas’s capture of hostages isn’t even on his radar.
If Allon is not a coward, Silva certainly is. It must be easier to pander to the anti-Israel public than have Palestinian protestors interrupting his book signings.
An Inside Job is a conventional thriller about art heists and threats to the Catholic Church. The Pope has replaced Ari Shamron as Allon’s closest companion. There is something repugnant about a Jewish character kowtowing to a church that has been trying to eradicate the Jewish people for two thousand years. Of course, Allon may not even be Jewish anymore — his personal history as a child of Holocaust survivors has also been erased in the current book.
Midway through An Inside Job, I pulled last year’s volume from my shelf, and, sure enough, no mention of October 7. No mention of Israel.
Yes, I know that Gabriel Allon is a fictional character. And authors often venture into new territory to retain their creative spark. But Daniel Silva has catapulted to first place on the New York Times Best Seller List on Gabriel Allon’s back. The pride and affection of Jewish readers who adored their Israeli hero sprang him from mid-list purgatory. Not only has the Jewish community enriched Silva by buying his books, they have rained honorariums on him, inviting him to speak at synagogues, Jewish community centers, and AMIT events, among others.
I can’t find any record online of Silva publicly supporting Israel since October 7. Social media creators have showered vitriol on Jewish performers who have not supported the Jewish state. I am astonished that no one has called out the silence of a popular writer who has built his entire career on the success of an Israeli character.
I am glad that, for the first time in 15 years, I did not buy Silva’s latest book – thank you Free Library of Philadelphia for the audiobook loan. And I will be clearing his books off my shelf and donating them to the library housed in my neighbor’s garage.
In Judaism, we have a concept called hakarat ha-tov – showing gratitude for those who have offered us kindness. The Jewish people have lavished affection and remuneration on Daniel Silva for 26 years. Now, in Israel’s hour of need, he has responded with silence and eliminated Israel and the Jewish people from his writing.
It’s time for the Jewish people to dump Gabriel Allon and find a spy who loves us.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nadine Bonner has been a journalist for more than 20 years. She is the former assistant editor of the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle and the Chicago Jewish News, both now deceased. Since the death of the newspaper business, she has worked as a PR professional, the editor of a trade publication for the lending industry, and an online content writer.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-spy-who-stayed-out-of-the-heat/