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A review by socraticgadfly
Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations by Ronen Bergman
3.0
Informative in many ways, but NOT in one HUGE way
This book is great for documenting how Mossad (foreign intell), Shin Bet (domestic intel) and Aman (military intel) combined to fight a variety of threats from various Palestinian groups, including Fatah and Hamas, plus Hezbullah in Lebanon, and Syrian and other support for some terrorists.
It documents types of operations, targets, successes, some slip-ups, organizational lapses and overhauls, and other things. Philosophies of all three groups, of individual leaders, and of the Israeli government in relation to targeted killings and other operations are also discussed.
There are also decent mini-profiles of not only Arafat but leaders of other groups and their aims and tactics, as well as of the various Israeli leaders of the three organizations and Israeli polticians.
But, since even a great book is normally at 4.5 stars for me, the one big lack, and lesser connected lacks, drop this to 3 stars.
NOT ONE WORD ABOUT THE NAKBA.
A person with little familiarity with the Middle East might just randomly buy the line of harder-core Zionists that Palestinians are ingrates, or even less than fully human.
Not one word about how, when Britain withdrew, and Israel, after attacks by Arab states, decided to expand boundaries beyond its UN mandate, and to expel, by various means, as many Arabs as it could.
The word isn't even in the index.
There's less than one word about the pre-Nakba "nakba," too. After World War I, but during the British Mandate period of control, Zionist settlers then were already trying to push Arabs off their land through threats at times, force at other times. And, succeeding often enough
Sure, the terrorism by Begin et al against the British gets brief mention. Bergman can't avoid that.
But, there's no mention of pre-Nakba land appropriation. Just of groups like Hashomer punishing Palestinian Arabs who allegedly deserved punishment.
Nor is there mention that Chaim Weizmann, even before the Balfour Declaration, said that Zionists would wait a generation or so, then start expropriating land.
None of this is to say that Arabs in either late Ottoman or British Mandate times were perfect. They weren't. Mandate-era Grand Mufti excited Arab actions against Jews. (And led protests about what was seen as pro-Jewish tiltings by Britain.)
If you want facts about what both Israel and various Palestinian and non-Palestinian groups are doing, this is a good book, as far as actual terrorist actions (though not all all by Israel are labeled that way).
If you want facts about why this is all happening, this is not at all a great book.
For that, read someone like Norman Finkelstein. https://theintercept.com/2018/05/20/norman-finkelstein-gaza-iran-israel-jerusalem-embassy/
This book is great for documenting how Mossad (foreign intell), Shin Bet (domestic intel) and Aman (military intel) combined to fight a variety of threats from various Palestinian groups, including Fatah and Hamas, plus Hezbullah in Lebanon, and Syrian and other support for some terrorists.
It documents types of operations, targets, successes, some slip-ups, organizational lapses and overhauls, and other things. Philosophies of all three groups, of individual leaders, and of the Israeli government in relation to targeted killings and other operations are also discussed.
There are also decent mini-profiles of not only Arafat but leaders of other groups and their aims and tactics, as well as of the various Israeli leaders of the three organizations and Israeli polticians.
But, since even a great book is normally at 4.5 stars for me, the one big lack, and lesser connected lacks, drop this to 3 stars.
NOT ONE WORD ABOUT THE NAKBA.
A person with little familiarity with the Middle East might just randomly buy the line of harder-core Zionists that Palestinians are ingrates, or even less than fully human.
Not one word about how, when Britain withdrew, and Israel, after attacks by Arab states, decided to expand boundaries beyond its UN mandate, and to expel, by various means, as many Arabs as it could.
The word isn't even in the index.
There's less than one word about the pre-Nakba "nakba," too. After World War I, but during the British Mandate period of control, Zionist settlers then were already trying to push Arabs off their land through threats at times, force at other times. And, succeeding often enough
Sure, the terrorism by Begin et al against the British gets brief mention. Bergman can't avoid that.
But, there's no mention of pre-Nakba land appropriation. Just of groups like Hashomer punishing Palestinian Arabs who allegedly deserved punishment.
Nor is there mention that Chaim Weizmann, even before the Balfour Declaration, said that Zionists would wait a generation or so, then start expropriating land.
None of this is to say that Arabs in either late Ottoman or British Mandate times were perfect. They weren't. Mandate-era Grand Mufti excited Arab actions against Jews. (And led protests about what was seen as pro-Jewish tiltings by Britain.)
If you want facts about what both Israel and various Palestinian and non-Palestinian groups are doing, this is a good book, as far as actual terrorist actions (though not all all by Israel are labeled that way).
If you want facts about why this is all happening, this is not at all a great book.
For that, read someone like Norman Finkelstein. https://theintercept.com/2018/05/20/norman-finkelstein-gaza-iran-israel-jerusalem-embassy/