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Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israels Targeted Assassinations review
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
Posted: November 26th, 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/22/rise-kill-firs...
In January 2010 Israeli agents converged on a luxury hotel in Dubai: their target was Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, an arms supplier for Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip. The mission involved 27 operatives of the Mossad secret service who were posing as tourists or tennis players. The hit team and their watchers flew in from different European airports using false passports. Communications were routed via Austria to avoid surveillance. Mabhouh was killed in his room using a paralysing drug and his body left to be discovered by hotel staff the next day. The snag was that the killing exposed the Mossad to global scrutiny and angered an Arab country with a record of quiet cooperation with Israel. CCTV caught the agents changing disguises and stalking their prey seen as a legitimate candidate for extrajudicial execution as he had killed an Israeli soldier and, more importantly, was a logistical link with Iran, sworn enemy of the Jewish state. Ronen Bergmans account of his countrys targeted assassinations contains a wealth of detail about this and other killings. In recent years Israel has assassinated more people than any other country in the western world. Bergmans long view sharpens understanding of the asymmetrical nature of the conflict and of the limits of force. Bergmans style tends to the sensational but that does not mask a critical strand that questions the morality and effectiveness of Israels approach to dealing with the enemy in its own backyard.
Note: Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman is available here. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on war and assassinations.
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