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A review by dansumption
Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman
5.0
This book begins in the early 20th century, with Zionist terrorists in Palestine killing the British, Arabs, and the occasional uncooperative Jew. It then traces the history of the Israeli state via its secret services: military, foreign and domestic (AMAN, the Mossad, and Shin Bet), and their operations at home, in Europe, and in hostile countries, particularly Lebanon, Syria and Iran.
A prologue, describing the resignation of Mossad chief Meir Dagan, outlines his logic for carrying out assassinations: by killing a few, key people, military conflict and the necessity for many more deaths is avoided. The end of the book returns to Dagan's enmity with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and concludes that although targeted assassinations have produced many tactical successes, they have been a strategic disaster, pushing a political solution ever further away.
This is certainly the sense I got from the book. Over the course of the 20th century each outrage and counter-outrage breeds increasing barbarity and the use of more radical measures by both sides. An eye-for-an-eye really will send the world blind. In particular, Ariel Sharon's blunt measures - the genocide in Lebanon in 1982, protesting at the Temple Mount in 2000, and loosening the controls over targeted killings from 2001 onwards - all seem to have done immeasurable damage to relationships between Israel and the rest of the world.
The book is well over 600 pages (and in the acknowledgemens, Bergman says the manuscript was twice the length) but it never becomes tedious. It's an incredible history, and one which takes a book this length to map out. Being a history of great secrets, one has to ask about the sources and veracity of Bergman's research. He addresses this up front, saying that is based upon thousands of interviews, and acknowledges that some were clearly trying to use him as the conduit for their own versions of events. He describes attempts to disrupt the book and prevent his publication, and makes it clear that it does not meet the Israeli military censor's approval. Strange then that, on reaching the death of Yasser Arafat, Bergman writes "if I knew the answer to the question of what killed Yasser Arafat, I wouldn't be able to write it here in this book, or even be able to write that I know the answer. The military censor in Israel forbids me from discussing this subject."
A prologue, describing the resignation of Mossad chief Meir Dagan, outlines his logic for carrying out assassinations: by killing a few, key people, military conflict and the necessity for many more deaths is avoided. The end of the book returns to Dagan's enmity with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and concludes that although targeted assassinations have produced many tactical successes, they have been a strategic disaster, pushing a political solution ever further away.
This is certainly the sense I got from the book. Over the course of the 20th century each outrage and counter-outrage breeds increasing barbarity and the use of more radical measures by both sides. An eye-for-an-eye really will send the world blind. In particular, Ariel Sharon's blunt measures - the genocide in Lebanon in 1982, protesting at the Temple Mount in 2000, and loosening the controls over targeted killings from 2001 onwards - all seem to have done immeasurable damage to relationships between Israel and the rest of the world.
The book is well over 600 pages (and in the acknowledgemens, Bergman says the manuscript was twice the length) but it never becomes tedious. It's an incredible history, and one which takes a book this length to map out. Being a history of great secrets, one has to ask about the sources and veracity of Bergman's research. He addresses this up front, saying that is based upon thousands of interviews, and acknowledges that some were clearly trying to use him as the conduit for their own versions of events. He describes attempts to disrupt the book and prevent his publication, and makes it clear that it does not meet the Israeli military censor's approval. Strange then that, on reaching the death of Yasser Arafat, Bergman writes "if I knew the answer to the question of what killed Yasser Arafat, I wouldn't be able to write it here in this book, or even be able to write that I know the answer. The military censor in Israel forbids me from discussing this subject."