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Rise and Kill First: A Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations - Review

About six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. This horrific experience was a big blow to the Jewish nation, but has served as an anchor for the growth and sophistication of the Israeli military and intelligence system. 

The Holocaust and continued hostility by surrounding Arab nations creates a sense among Israeli leaders that the Jewish people would always be under threat of annihilation, and just as in the Holocaust, no one could be trusted to come to their rescue. 

The state of Israel would go on to prove to themselves and to the world that never again would Jews go through such slaughter, and that Jewish blood would never again come cheap. The nation’s highly effective military and intelligence network is proof today. 

Israel’s intelligence community (the Mossad, Shin Bet and the IDF) is arguably the world’s most sophisticated. A saying of the Talmud has evolved into a sort of Intelligence creed: “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first”. Consequently, Israel resorts to targeted assassinations as a preemptive measure to ensure national security. Since the end of the second world war, the State of Israel has carried out more targeted assassinations than any other country in the western world. Israeli leaders remain firm believers in the Hammurabi Code of “an eye for an eye.” 

“If you are an enemy of Israel, we will find you and kill you, wherever you are”

Ronen Borgeman in his 750-paged book, gives detailed inside accounts of Israel’s targeted assassinations; their successes, failures and the moral cost of this policy – The heavy burden on the conscience of some operatives, who at the end of some operations may reckon it wasn’t worth it. The cases are real, detailed and interesting. We see the lengths the State of Israel would go to annihilate a potential threat. 

In 1962, there is the kidnapping and assassination of German scientists both in Cairo and Europe, working to develop missiles for Egypt. The same is repeated in 2010 with the assassination of the Iranian scientists working on an atomic bomb, and many others cases I won’t get into. 

 Israel’s justification for targeting anyone rests on there being a direct link between that person and an imminent terrorist attack. Another justification is the belief that no country could be trusted with the security of the Israeli nation. At the World Olympic Games of 1972 in Munich, Israeli Athletes were kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists. The games continued as though nothing had happened, and German police remained sluggish in their response, which ultimately led to the slaughtering of the athletes.

Again, this reinforced the need to keep the responsibility for the survival of Jews in the hands of Jews. It also set off a higher notch on targeted killings. Israel would not only defend herself, but also go on the offensive. “At any place where a plot is being laid, where they are preparing people to murder jews, Isrealis - Jews anywhere – it is there that we are committed to striking them” 

We can also come to terms with the dire loyalty of Jews everywhere to their nation. Jews in diaspora are a global intelligence asset to the Mossad. The intelligence community can call at anytime and they would gladly answer.

This is not so much of a review of the book, but a little drag on defining moments and the motivation they can bring. Just as the Holocaust shaped and defined the state of Israel today, the terrorist attack of 9/11 was a defining point for the United States also.  America has since then stepped up its intelligence gathering and preemptive measures. A sort of ‘Never again’ policy that is accompanied by a fierce clamp down on global terrorism. Through this, the Mossad has also remained a big ally to the United States’ CIA; one of the very best relationships between intelligence agencies around the world.

Bringing it home, I can’t help but think of the anti-Igbo pogrom of 1966 and the continued marginalization of the Igbo people of Nigeria. The Igbos were slaughtered in their millions, and I identify that as a defining moment. A Republic of Biafra might have been a legacy of that historic massacre, if only she had survived. Although, the negative outcome of the Civil War on the Igbo people and their continued exclusion from power has led the Igbos to become Nigeria's most prolific business people.


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