Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations

The Middle East and the Arab - Israeli conflict have gone on seemingly forever. This is the first book I have read on that subject. What I like about it foremost is the detail and background on operations. The author gives a lot of political information on various Israeli administrations and their individual motivations and strategies. It’s a fascinating, thoroughly researched book. It’s educational especially if you haven’t read much on the subjects of the assassinations, the organizations, intel gathering, along with the process and approval steps. Excellent book!

I’ve known about the Israeli targeted assignations, but never the size and breadth them. This book brought to light the many reasons why the Mossad, and Israeli intelligence as a whole, is so revered and feared. Reading this book also brought to light a lot of understanding of current events and how many of the leaders of Israel, much like other countries, get recycled. Often not for the good of the country. At the end of this book it’s hard to decide whether I feel sorry for Israelis, the Palestinians, both, or neither. They both seem hell bent on destroying each other, yet as this book, and current events show, continue recreate the cycles of hate through new generations. Either way, amazing book, well written, exciting, and certainly well worth the read.

There’s not really a ton of nuance or mystery in Rise and Kill First. It is exactly what it says it is on the front cover: A secret history of Israel’s targeted killing program. It’s just six hundred pages of various operations. Many of these operations were successful, but the author has also included several notable failures and missteps and how these actions have changed the practices of Israel’s much feared targeted killing apparatus. The killing starts early and often. It is an odd feeling as the reader throughout because with few notable exceptions, you know that the target is going to be killed, but Bergman manages to keep it interesting by writing in a detailed, yet cinematic style where the reader can almost picture step by step the action going down. This is a special quality that doesn’t happen with many books of this type. The book never dragged and always kept me engaged despite it’s less than savory subject matter. This is the type of book that one creates when the country has been under threat since day one, but it is a whole lot deeper than [plot to damage Israel, target plotter, kill him]. It’s a human story with loves, hates, passion, successes and failures that I wasn’t expecting when I picked it up.

Great book. I highly recommend. Any history buff or Jew should read this book. Very insightful. Knowledge is power.

Great read!

I am not Jewish, but my wife is. I really enjoyed this book because it gave me the complete history of Israel from 2000 years ago and up to now. Description of different targeted killings and operations whether they went good or bad was with such detail, that, I was so fascinated I couldn’t put the book down. Even now, the Prime Minister of Israel is exactly what Ronan said that he is. I really hope that the war gets over soon and Palestine has its own state. Dagan was right when he said that a 2 State Resolution is the only way to end the war. And Israel has to stay out of the new state of Palestine if there is to be any peace at all , I think. I don’t read many books, but once I started this book I couldn’t wait to get home from work to read more,it was unbelievably written. My thanks to Ronen Bergman And Lawrence O’Donnell because that’s where I saw Ron Bergman first on the Lawrence. O’Donnell show.

And is a very interesting study.

This book was one of the finest accounts of a dark history that I have ever read. The author does explain why the Israelis found it necessary to use targeted assassinations for the safety of their people. The emotions that one experiences while reading this book are at times extreme and there are times that you are very proud of what the Isrseli’s were able to accomplish and there were times that you were disappointed in what Israeli’s actually did to defend themselves. I have read many of the other reviews of the book and found statements which I was in total agreement. As I read the book, I feared that this book would become a reference to be used by Israeli’s enemies for decades to come. Only time will tell if my fears are correct. The book is over 700 pages long. I had trouble putting it down because of the quality of the writing and the stories that I was reading. He ends the book chastising the policies and leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, and I do not disagree with his opinions. However, at no time does he ever opine what he would have done differently to make the situation better than it is. The leadership of Israel siged peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan in exchange for land. To this day, Israel has “peaceful” relations with both Egypt and Jordan. Israel unilaterally decided to withdraw it settlements from Gaza. In exchange for this conciliatory action, Israel gets rockets and terror tunnels from Gaza. According to some people, the settlements are an obstacle to the peace process in the area. The actions of Hamas in Gaza prove that the settlements had nothing to do with the peace effort. After 638 pages of riveting stories, the author thanks all of those who helped him with this seven-year project. At no time does the author ever acknowledge that life for him and his family has been made safer by the efforts that he so explicitly described in the book. The people he wrote about were left thankless for risking their lives and the personal sacrifices they have made attempting to improve the safety and quality of life for Israeli’s in particular and all Jews around the world. I respect the authors skill and effort, and right to publish this exhausting work. I disrespect the author personally for the potential harm that this book will do to Israel and Jews in the world. I feel the author owes the intelligence forces who he has written about, a sincere apology for not making any mention of the sacrifice and good intentions that these people have made to attempt to protect their country and their people in the acknowledgment section at the end of the book. ARW