It was four o’clock in the morning: the moment of daybreak, when partygoers head home for bed, when streetwise cats try their luck in trash cans and poets seek inspiration in the early dawn.

A greenish light cut streaks across the Cairo sky. When Jonathan first saw the small monkey perched on the branch of a nearby acacia tree, he thought that the cute little visitor was pleading for food so he threw it a banana. Jonathan had a lot on his mind and it certainly wasn’t the monkey that was bothering him. But, in his wildest dreams, he could never have guessed that the pleasing of this particular monkey was about to change his life. He yawned and went inside.

Jonathan O’Lochan, Counselor of the Embassy of the United States of America in Egypt did not find the moment propitious. With a mug of fresh brewed coffee in his hand to help him start the day after a troubled and sleepless night, he glanced at his surroundings. The balcony overlooked a garden and birds were already chirping through the early morning mist. The Counselor’s residence was an old colonial villa in the center of Cairo, decorated with white stucco and surrounded by a small park. It was conveniently located in Tibbanah Street, and from the balcony one could see the dome of the Blue Mosque, founded by Prince Aqsunqur Al-Nassery in 1347 AD. In quieter times Jonathan would sometimes go there and enjoy the mosaics of Muslim art on its walls. For reasons of security the Administration had wanted to relocate him to the confines of a walled compound and he had fought hard to be allowed to keep this little oasis of calm. He shrugged as he peered through the mist at the Egyptian security man standing at the gate. The thought crossed his mind that maybe one day a guard such as this might empty a machine gun into his belly.

Indeed, the day before had seen yet another bloody terror attack on the streets of Jerusalem. He wondered how it was that there could be so much hate in the Holy Land, where so many prophets, even Christ himself, had walked and preached the eternal brotherhood of man. It was so hard to build peace and so easy
to trigger conflict.