Review of Book Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations
Review by through and through spy craft fan boy
Before diving into the review, I’d like to provide some context about myself. Understanding my background and the lens through which I might have approached the book will allow you to better assess any potential biases. I believe it’s better for a reviewer to disclose his biases upfront.
From a very young age, I have been fan of the stories of of R&AW, Mossad, K.G.B and C.I.A. (these are spy agencies of India, Israel, Soviet Union and United States respectively). Stories of spies infiltrating the enemy nation, gathering important information and finally eliminating the enemy. Like every boy of my age I also wanted to become a spy. Wanted to do all the things that spies do. Like shown in James Bond movies. I would imagine myself in tux and drinking vodka martini. As a kid I idealised R. N. Kao (of R&AW), Meir Dagan (of Mossad), James Angleton (of C.I.A) and others.
(GIF Credit: giphy.com)
From this you can correctly guess that I am a spy-craft fanboy, who is always eager to hear the next spy story. When I got to know about the book ‘Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations’ by Ronen Bergman I was eager to read it and so I did.
(Image Source: ronenbergman.com)
In the book Ronen takes us on a ride, starting from the years before formation of the modern state of Israel to the Israel of 2009-2010s. The central figure in the book is targeted assassinations of threats or perceived threats as a tool for national security. In simple words it means to kill anyone who harmed or could harm the nation.
This type of assassination is not new to the Jewish people instead is part of Talmud (primary source of Jewish religious law and theology, second only to the Hebrew Bible). In Talmud there is a phrase “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first”. This phrase has regained popularity in Israel after this book. Ronen writes about various operations, where targeted assassinations were used to eliminate the enemy. Tough he also grapples with the morality of these operations. I’ll leave the morality to you.
Due to the operations being mentioned are in chronological order, we get to know how the Israeli forces evolved and adopted different and unique methods of assassinating the enemy. It starts from the unorganised Lehi to modern well equipped intelligence and killing machines like AMAN, Mossad and Shin Bet (secret services of Israel).
To honour the way in which Ronen has presented the evolution of Israel’s killing machine, I would highlight few operations which I feel might encourage you to read the book. Let’s start with the initial days, before modern Israel was formed, when the operations lacked organisation.
In 1940, Lehi was formed which is officially known as Fighters for the Freedom of Israel with the goal of removing the British colonisers. From this group many Israeli leaders have emerged like Yitzhak Shamir (who later became Israel’s PM).
Under the leadership of Shamir, 2 Lehi operatives were sent to Cairo to eliminate Lord Moyne. Their instructions were to wait at Moyne’s door, and were to shoot him on his arrival. When the car pulled up, the operatives sprinted and fired 3 shots aimed at Moyne’s head. While escaping they chose bicycle instead of a fast moving car against the instructions of Shamir. Soon the Egyptian police apprehended, convicted and hanged them.
Few of the analyst think that this attack on a Moyne, discouraged Churchill to give concessions to a Jewish state. While reading the book you will see such scuffles occurring multiple times when due to some operation either gone successful or failure have damaged Israel’s relations. Like Operation Lillehammer that took place in Norway. In which Mossad agents eliminated an innocent man instead of member of terrorist organisation Black September, Ali Hassan Salameh.
Or in the Operation Opera/Operation Babylon. The operation was to destroy the Iraq’s nuclear reactor before it became operational. A small team of elite Israeli pilots, flying F-16 Fighting Falcons were prepared for a daring strike. The plan was simple: fly low, avoid radar, and hit the reactor hard. With precision and stealth, the planes took off from Israel, flying almost 1,000 KM to Baghdad. At the moment they reached the Osirak nuclear facility, they released their bombs in a flash of light. The reactor was obliterated. In this operation Israel was successful in destroying Iraqi nuclear reactors, which was an existential treat to the Jewish state. Sill was condemned internationally.
You might have seen movies or read books on Operation Thunderbolt, but to eliminate one of the master minds Wadile Haddad, an operation called Toothpaste Operation was used. Wadile Haddad was a key figure in several high-profile attacks, including the 1976 Entebbe Hijacking of Air France Flight 139. To eliminate him Mossad replaced Haddad's regular toothpaste with a toxic version developed by the Israel Institute for Biological Research. The toxin gradually entered Haddad's bloodstream through his mucous membranes, causing severe illness and eventual death.
Ronen also covers many more operations like the when Shin Bet coup, Intifada, Black September, PLO, hunt for Yahya Ayyash, letter bombs, drones, regime change in Iran, rise of Hamas and more. Apart from only focusing on operations, Ronen also highlights on few key individuals. Like David Ben-Gurion, Areal Sharon, Meir Dagan and more. I really liked it, as showed the men who I idealised in different light due to the situation they were put in. Out of those let’s talk little about Meir Dagan.
Meir Dagan used to keep a photograph in his office of a bearded man kneeling in front of German troops. Once Dagan told Ronen, “Most of the Jews in the Holocaust died without fighting. We must never reach that situation again, kneeling, without the ability to fight for our lives.” The old man was his grandfather, shortly before the Nazis murdered him.
With this, I would like to conclude my review. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys spy stories as it is a catalogue of spy stories.
Note:
The book is nearly 700 pages long. So it might take some time to read. Before you get cold feet for reading the book by the sheer volume of pages, I would like to remind you about the effort Ronen have had to put in. I can tell from personal experience, it’s not easy to write. Even to write a short essay, I have to go through multiple articles and papers. For Ronen to write such an extensive book would have required meticulous research and thousands of interviews. Think about the amount of raw data that he processed to give us this book. Such effort and research itself is admirable and deserves praise.
(Image of Ronen Bergman, Source: ronenbergman.com)
Due to the sheer volume of the operations both success and failures, Ronen highlights it can be little daunting with chapters sometimes feeling like an endless catalogue of operations rather than a cohesive story. But Ronen tried to give the book as form of a story as possible.
If I missed something or wrote something incorrect, I apologise. For edits kindly text me with the sources and would be happy to correct my mistake.
Regards
Hitesh
Book Link:
https://www.amazon.in/Rise-Kill-First-Ronen-Bergman/dp/1400069718
https://ronenbergman.com/rise-and-kill-first-the-book/
Author Website: https://ronenbergman.com/