Rise and Kill First

The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations

Preview

Failed to add items

Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.

Add to basket failed.

Please try again later

Add to wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Remove from wishlist failed.

Please try again later

Adding to library failed

Please try again

Follow podcast failed

Unfollow podcast failed

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.

Try for £0.00

More purchase options

Buy Now for £16.99

About this listen

* AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR * THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *

Shortlisted for the Airey Neave Memorial Book Prize
Winner of 2018 National Jewish Book Award

'A gripping investigation of Israel's assassination policy' Sunday Times
'Remarkable' Observer
'Riveting' Daily Mail
'Compelling' John le Carré

The first definitive history of the Mossad, Shin Bet, and the IDF's targeted killing programs.

The Talmud says: "If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first." This instinct to take every measure, even the most aggressive, to defend the Jewish people is hardwired into Israel's DNA. From the very beginning of its statehood in 1948, protecting the nation from harm has been the responsibility of its intelligence community and armed services, and there is one weapon in their vast arsenal that they have relied upon to thwart the most serious threats: Targeted assassinations have been used countless times, on enemies large and small, sometimes in response to attacks against the Israeli people and sometimes preemptively.

In this page-turning, eye-opening book, journalist and military analyst Ronen Bergman - praised by David Remnick as "arguably [Israel's] best investigative reporter" - offers a riveting inside account of the targeted killing programs: their successes, their failures, and the moral and political price exacted on the men and women who approved and carried out the missions.

Built from interviews with Israeli Prime Ministers as well as high-level figures in Mossad, and the country's military and intelligence services - Rise and Kill First includes never-before-reported, behind-the-curtain accounts of key operations, and based on hundreds of on-the-record interviews and thousands of previously unseen files. Bergman traces, from statehood to the present, the gripping events and thorny ethical questions underlying Israel's targeted killing campaign, which has shaped the Israeli nation, the Middle East, and the entire world.

Rise and Kill First is the definitive book to read on Israel's military history.©2018 Ronen Bergman

Ronen BergmanRob ShapiroJohn Murray

Espionage

Freedom & Security

Israel & Palestine

Middle East

Politics & Government

True Crime

Exciting

Iran

Africa

Scary

Thought-Provoking

Inspiring

Military

Royalty

War

Espionage Freedom & Security Israel & Palestine Middle East Politics & Government True Crime Exciting Iran Africa Scary Thought-Provoking Inspiring Military Royalty War

Critic reviews

A thrilling narrative of extreme bravery and compromised morality

Ronen Bergman has set out in incontestable detail the history and scale of Israel's use of extrajudicial killing as an instrument of defence and foreign policy. His material is stark and sensational, but he steers a steady course through it ... The result is a compelling read whatever your point of view.

A gripping investigation of Israel's assassination policy

Riveting...Based on 1,000 interviews and vast numbers of leaked documents, his book often reads like a John le Carre novel. But it took considerable courage for him to publish it.

A masterpiece! Only Ronen Bergman's extraordinary research could have achieved it

Exciting, sometimes moving and always considered...Not only is Bergman's book a stunning feat of research and a riveting read, it is also testament to the author's personal courage (Dominic Sandbrook)

With remarkable access to officials and reports, Ronen Bergman's revealing book lays bare Mossad's kill operations

The Israeli government did its best to prevent Bergman from writing this ...fascinating new book about the history of Israeli assassinations, published during Israel's seventieth anniversary year. Rise and Kill First not only sheds light on that most secretive of subjects, Israel's intelligence services, but also has wider significance: how and why a state uses extra-judicial killing, and the consequences of doing so.

You think the Krays were rough? Try the Mossad. This is an amalgam of the secret and often lethal special operations they carried out over the years.

Terrific ... It's easy to understand why Bergman's book is already a bestseller. It moves at a torrid pace and tells stories that would make Jason Bourne sit up and say 'Wow!' It is smart, thoughtful and balanced.

An exceptional work, a humane book about an incendiary subject

This remarkable account of Israel's targeted-killing programs is the product of nearly eight years of research into what is arguably the most secretive and impenetrable intelligence community in the world.

Authoritative . . . a chilling portrait

Well-written and informative, Rise and Kill First is the best book so far written on this dramatic subject

Fascinating . . . In picturesque and gripping language, making use of careful, often ground-breaking research, Bergman presents a series of incidents from the history of the Mossad's assassination missions

Most relevant

I started this book a little sceptical as the author concedes the secrecy of the Mossad, but claims to have gained unparalleled unofficial insight through interviews with multiple Mossad agents across the period from 1948 till today. As the book continues with some remarkable stories, I started checking the internet alongside listening to the book. I have to say I found all of the stories that I checked to be corroborated by other sources.

As to the book itself, it is a fascinating and enthralling tale of decades of assassination covering not just Mossad, but the entirety of Israel's intelligence community. The narrative rattles along and I was surprised when I realised this book is 26 hours long.

There are a number of things that struck me. First is the sheer scale of this activity, well told with a good sense of how successive generations of operatives found reason to dispense with what many would see as "the rule of law". Second are the intimate links between the intelligence community with senior government; many Prime Ministers having served within these very same units earlier in their lives.

My over-riding impression, though, was Bergman's careful charting of this much-vaunted force losing any sense of moral compass. In recent times, Bergman describes how even senior retired officers, including one Mossad chief, feel its ruthless approach has become counter-productive. David becomes Goliath. That is not to say that he shies away from describing the appalling terrorist acts of the PLO, Black September and the rest, nor the very real threat from Arab countries and in more recent times, from Iran. But as one listens to the descriptions of discussions within Mossad and with politicians, it is fascinating to see how moral considerations are eroded until hardly recognised at all. Fascinating, enthralling, but appalling and sad.

One reviewer has talked about the author "having an agenda". I was intrigued as to what this might be, but for me, at least, it is less an "agenda" and more of an inevitable conclusion if one accepts the analysis that this book contains.