Rise and Kill First

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What to expect

* 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.

Critics Review

A thrilling narrative of extreme bravery and compromised morality
Economist, Books of the Year 2018
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.
John le Carré
A gripping investigation of Israel's assassination policy
Sunday Times
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.
Daily Mail
A masterpiece! Only Ronen Bergman's extraordinary research could have achieved it
Christopher Andrew, author of 'The Defence of the Realm: The Authorised History of MI5'
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
Sunday Times
With remarkable access to officials and reports, Ronen Bergman's revealing book lays bare Mossad's kill operations
Observer
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.
TLS
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.
Daily Express
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.
The New York Times Book Review
An exceptional work, a humane book about an incendiary subject
New York Times
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.
The New Yorker
Authoritative . . . a chilling portrait
The Washington Post
Well-written and informative, Rise and Kill First is the best book so far written on this dramatic subject
Jewish Chronicle
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
Literary Review

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