Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations Paperback – July 9, 2019

Book arrived on time and as described.

Every page was fascinating—one of the most incredible pieces of modern history/reporting I have ever read. Bergman’s main thesis is that Israel has relied (and continues to rely) on a systematic program of targeted assassinations as a central component of its national security strategy—and that the strategy has worked. Bergman acknowledges the moral and ethical components throughout and occasionally offers damning criticism for specific decisions and individuals. Perhaps the greatest strength of the book is Bergman’s writing...you will be forgiven if you, at times, believe that you reading a Robert Lublin or Tom Clancy novel and forget that you are actually reading an exhaustively cross-checked and verified history of the covert operations of a modern state. It really is that good at times.The only weakness of the book was the last two pages. Bergman misses the opportunity to return to his thesis and to punctuate the importance of targeted assassinations to secure the Jewish state, and instead...awkwardly turns to Netanyahu’s political failure engineer a two-state solution. However (setting aside this quibble about Bergman not “sticking the dismount”) overall, his work is a mind-bogglingly extensive masterpiece—especially considering his offhanded remark in the Acknowledgments that the 630 pages of text that made it to print were only HALF of the original text in his first draft!

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

The sheer difficulty of the sources is a testament to his skill as a journalist. The sheer difficulty of this Gordian Knot problem is a testament to his skill as a formally trained historian. The edge-of-your-seat prose would probably be poo-poo'd by a few academic historians, but mostly out of jealousy.What I'm learning: History is a brutal place where no one's hands are clean. If you, like me, aren't invested in any of the sides in the Middle East, this book won't help you choose. Rather, it will teach you that nuances and contradictions are a standard part of history (that is, history wie es eigentlich gewesen ist, not the history of social media and gossip), and that history isn't tied up in a bow.So much for a historian's comment. For general readers, you'll have a hard time putting it down at bedtime. Your understanding of today's wars in the Middle East will grow exponentially.Last observation: look at this comments from the readers who hated it: they sound like something from the Simpsons, old man shaking his cane at the clouds and yelling, "Get off my lawn!"

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.