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Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations by Ronen Bergman
rellimreads's review against another edition
5.0
What is most amazing to me is that, at 26 hours, this never failed to keep my attention. Ronen Bergman has pulled together a massive amount of documented information about the Mossad and presented in such a way that it felt neither tedious or pedantic.
Other than a book about the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and the resulting operation Wrath of God/Bayonet, my knowledge of the history of the State of Israel is fairly minimal. I appreciated that Bergman combines personal, professional, regional, and world events in a manner that gives a broader understanding of Israel’s founding and how its missions were initiated. He does not gloss over technical, procedural, or moral failures and provides insight into the real human cost to the many sides of Israel’s operations. Covering over 60 years of historical perspective, few people and no countries or political/ideological movements are left untarnished.
I did not finish listening feeling that there was an agenda other than to provide the reader (or listener in my case) with a more comprehensive view of what has been, up to 2010, classified or the “public version” was purposefully lacking in information. Bergman does not provide any prescriptives, and in many ways the story is not over.
Rob Shapiro does a fantastic job. He’s one of few narrators that could handle such an informationally dense yet emotionally wrought text with such skill. Shapiro’s delivery of names, cities, and regional or operational colloquialism seemed effortless. Combined with Bergman’s composition – this is an engaging listen.
Other than a book about the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre and the resulting operation Wrath of God/Bayonet, my knowledge of the history of the State of Israel is fairly minimal. I appreciated that Bergman combines personal, professional, regional, and world events in a manner that gives a broader understanding of Israel’s founding and how its missions were initiated. He does not gloss over technical, procedural, or moral failures and provides insight into the real human cost to the many sides of Israel’s operations. Covering over 60 years of historical perspective, few people and no countries or political/ideological movements are left untarnished.
I did not finish listening feeling that there was an agenda other than to provide the reader (or listener in my case) with a more comprehensive view of what has been, up to 2010, classified or the “public version” was purposefully lacking in information. Bergman does not provide any prescriptives, and in many ways the story is not over.
Rob Shapiro does a fantastic job. He’s one of few narrators that could handle such an informationally dense yet emotionally wrought text with such skill. Shapiro’s delivery of names, cities, and regional or operational colloquialism seemed effortless. Combined with Bergman’s composition – this is an engaging listen.
dale_kooyenga's review
3.0
This is a very comprehensive book. It is impossible to commit all the stories in this book to memory. It has to be the most detailed book on the subject. I have read others, for example, Gideon's Spies, that are easier reads. This book includes every significant unclassified assassination attempt of consequence in Israel's history. Some of the assassinations, and kidnappings, are textbook examples of how to execute a military operation, while other stories take a less romantic perspective and detail the ineptitude that also cost lives and embarrassed Israel. A lot of heroes, zeroes, and characters between the two extremes.
The author has an axe to grind with Benjamin Netanyahu and ends the book with a settle but noticeable disdain for the Prime Minister.
A must-read for any Intelligence Community professional.
The author has an axe to grind with Benjamin Netanyahu and ends the book with a settle but noticeable disdain for the Prime Minister.
A must-read for any Intelligence Community professional.
alexisrt's review
5.0
This is a very detailed history of Israel's targeted assassination program, and to a lesser extent of its intelligence services. Ronen Bergman was able to interview many of the figures involved, and it's sobering and fascinating reading. Bergman doesn't shy from a moral judgment of the program: that although it was superficially successful, it came at a huge moral cost, and that Israeli leaders became overly reliant on it as a tool to avoid first war and then political negotiations. At the same time, he's aware of what drove them to use the tactic--a knowledge that Israel, especially in its early years, could not win an open war, and that other countries would not back them up (brutally illustrated in the story about Munich).