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A review by stevendedalus
Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations by Ronen Bergman
4.0
An incredibly impressive piece of reportage with deep access into the workings of Mossad and the Israeli security apparatus. It chronicles the evolution of Israel's assassination policy as political winds shift and technology and ideology make it easier and easier to kill.
It's depressing to watch it unfold with a momentum no one with power seems to have any desire to stop. Checks are ever so slight and most criticism is only after the critic has left whatever office would have made his criticism effective.
Bergman relies almost exclusively on the Israeli perspective for the merit of the actions, with a bit of faceted perspectives from its allies. You're not going to get a completely balanced portrait: this is a history of internal, not external debates, on the policy of targeted killings.
It acts as a deep fount of Israeli justifications and views, but won't help you understand the whole conflict, just how one side became increasingly seduced by its power to kill so that it sank into a quagmire that looks increasingly inescapable.
It's depressing to watch it unfold with a momentum no one with power seems to have any desire to stop. Checks are ever so slight and most criticism is only after the critic has left whatever office would have made his criticism effective.
Bergman relies almost exclusively on the Israeli perspective for the merit of the actions, with a bit of faceted perspectives from its allies. You're not going to get a completely balanced portrait: this is a history of internal, not external debates, on the policy of targeted killings.
It acts as a deep fount of Israeli justifications and views, but won't help you understand the whole conflict, just how one side became increasingly seduced by its power to kill so that it sank into a quagmire that looks increasingly inescapable.