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A review by mkesten
Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations by Ronen Bergman
5.0
This book has remarkable research about the tactical success of Israeli intelligence agencies, the tragic strategic failures of the Israeli government, and the clearest arguments I have ever read for compromise on the Palestinian territories.
No matter the ingenious methods Mossad used to corral Israel’s enemies abroad, there was always another enemy lurking.
This isn’t just the story about Israel’s fabled spy service. It’s about the triumvirate of intelligence services: AMAN, the military intelligence directorate, Shin Bet, its domestic security agency, and Mossad, the agency keeping tabs on Israel’s enemies abroad.
And unlike the divisions between US intelligence and operations arms, in Israel the intelligence divisions are often tasked with covert campaigns, such as the targeted assassinations discussed in this book.
In the scope of this book, we learn the agencies undertook about 1,000 targeted killings, a period where the US secretly attempted about 350 targeted killings with its own drone force, Delta Force, and SEAL teams.
Journalist Ronen Bergman has been given access to some very senior players in the Israeli intelligence community including Mossad spymaster Meir Dagan who died only in March, 2016, and spent his last breaths condemning Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
While no single act of terror on Jews in the 20th century motivated these killings, it’s pretty clear that the attack on athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich was something that motivated Dagan.
We learn what the intelligence agencies and the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) did well and where they fell far short. We learn how in recent years they adapted new technologies so well that with their drone force it is almost like shooting fish in a barrel.
The discussion of drone coverage, mobile electronic surveillance, and wiretapping opens questions about privacy in the State of Israel itself, of how far the security services will go to monitor its Arab and other citizens.
We learn that Shin Bet was very slow to recognize the rising power of Hamas, and the coalition between Syria, Iran, and Hamas which has delivered hundreds of millions in military supplies and expertise to the terrorist cells.
And we learn that Syria came very close to secretly completing a nuclear arms program before Israeli jets put an end to it.
Not only is the book well researched and written, it is expertly edited as well. While this book is about a terribly serious subject, it does allow room for the gallows humour of trained killers.
No matter the ingenious methods Mossad used to corral Israel’s enemies abroad, there was always another enemy lurking.
This isn’t just the story about Israel’s fabled spy service. It’s about the triumvirate of intelligence services: AMAN, the military intelligence directorate, Shin Bet, its domestic security agency, and Mossad, the agency keeping tabs on Israel’s enemies abroad.
And unlike the divisions between US intelligence and operations arms, in Israel the intelligence divisions are often tasked with covert campaigns, such as the targeted assassinations discussed in this book.
In the scope of this book, we learn the agencies undertook about 1,000 targeted killings, a period where the US secretly attempted about 350 targeted killings with its own drone force, Delta Force, and SEAL teams.
Journalist Ronen Bergman has been given access to some very senior players in the Israeli intelligence community including Mossad spymaster Meir Dagan who died only in March, 2016, and spent his last breaths condemning Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
While no single act of terror on Jews in the 20th century motivated these killings, it’s pretty clear that the attack on athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich was something that motivated Dagan.
We learn what the intelligence agencies and the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) did well and where they fell far short. We learn how in recent years they adapted new technologies so well that with their drone force it is almost like shooting fish in a barrel.
The discussion of drone coverage, mobile electronic surveillance, and wiretapping opens questions about privacy in the State of Israel itself, of how far the security services will go to monitor its Arab and other citizens.
We learn that Shin Bet was very slow to recognize the rising power of Hamas, and the coalition between Syria, Iran, and Hamas which has delivered hundreds of millions in military supplies and expertise to the terrorist cells.
And we learn that Syria came very close to secretly completing a nuclear arms program before Israeli jets put an end to it.
Not only is the book well researched and written, it is expertly edited as well. While this book is about a terribly serious subject, it does allow room for the gallows humour of trained killers.