
Rise and Kill First
The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations
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Narrated by:
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Rob Shapiro
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By:
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Ronen Bergman
About this listen
New York Times best seller. The first definitive history of the Mossad, Shin Bet, and the IDF’s targeted killing programs, hailed by The New York Times as "an exceptional work, a humane book about an incendiary subject."
Winner of the National Jewish Book Award in History.
Named one of the 10 best books of the year by Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times.
Named one of the best books of the year by The Economist, The New York Times Book Review, BBC History Magazine, Mother Jones, and Kirkus Reviews
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 pause-resisting, eye-opening audiobook, 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.
Bergman has gained the exceedingly rare cooperation of many current and former members of the Israeli government, including Prime Ministers Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as high-level figures in the country's military and intelligence services: the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), the Mossad (the world's most feared intelligence agency), Caesarea (a "Mossad within the Mossad" that carries out attacks on the highest-value targets), and the Shin Bet (an internal security service that implemented the largest targeted assassination campaign ever, in order to stop what had once appeared to be unstoppable: suicide terrorism).
Including never-before-reported, behind-the-curtain accounts of key operations, and based on hundreds of on-the-record interviews and thousands of files to which Bergman has gotten exclusive access over his decades of reporting, Rise and Kill First brings us deep into the heart of Israel’s most secret activities. 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.
©2018 Ronen Bergman (P)2018 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Ronen Bergman has set out in incontestable detail the history and scale of Israel’s use of extrajudicial killing as an instrument of defense and foreign policy. His material is stark and sensational, but he steers a steady course through it, even pausing along the way to debate the effectiveness and morality of his subject. The result is a compelling read whatever your point of view.” (John le Carré)
“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. Bergman, an investigative reporter and military analyst, interviewed hundreds of insiders, including assassins, and obtained thousands of classified documents.” (The New Yorker)
“America’s difficult relationship with targeted killing and the dilemmas we may face in the future are beautifully illuminated by the longer story of Israel’s experiences with assassination in its own endless war against terrorism.... Americans now have a terrific new introduction to that story with publication of Ronen Bergman’s Rise and Kill First.... 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, and the English translation is superb. It deserves all of the plaudits it has already received.” (The New York Times Book Review)
“Blending history and investigative reporting, Bergman never loses sight of the ethical questions that arise when a state, founded as a refuge for a stateless people who were targets of a genocide, decides it needs to kill in order to survive.... This book is full of shocking moments, surprising disturbances in a narrative full of fateful twists and unintended consequences.” (The New York Times)
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Story
Israel is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world's attention, aroused its imagination, and, lately, been the object of its opprobrium. Why does such a small country speak to so many global concerns? More pressingly: Why does Israel make the decisions it does? And what lies in its future? We cannot answer these questions until we understand Israel's people and the questions and conflicts, the hopes and desires, that have animated their conversations and actions.
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Excellent, mildly but honestly biased, terrible narration
- By Schaq on 04-01-17
By: Daniel Gordis
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The Palestinian Delusion
- The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process
- By: Robert Spencer
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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The Palestinian Delusion is unique in situating the Israeli/Palestinian conflict within the context of the global jihad that has found renewed impetus in the latter portion of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. Briskly recounting the tumultuous history of the "peace process", Robert Spencer demonstrates that the determination of diplomats, policymakers, and negotiators to ignore this aspect of the conflict has led the Israelis, the Palestinians, and the world down numerous blind alleys. This has often only exacerbated, rather than healed, this conflict.
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The Real Facts
- By Canes580 on 01-25-20
By: Robert Spencer
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Directorate S
- The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 28 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Resuming the narrative of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars, best-selling author Steve Coll tells for the first time the epic and enthralling story of America's intelligence, military, and diplomatic efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 9/11.
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Slow At Times But Always Horrifying And Engaging
- By Gillian on 02-20-18
By: Steve Coll
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Raid on the Sun
- Inside Israel's Secret Campaign that Denied Saddam the Bomb
- By: Rodger W. Claire
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Abridged
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From the earliest days of his dictatorship, Saddam Hussein had vowed to destroy Israel. So, when France sold Iraq a top-of-the-line nuclear reactor in 1975, the Israelis were justifiably concerned, especially when they discovered that Iraqi scientists had already formulated a secret program to extract weapon-grade plutonium from the reactor, a first critical step in creating an atomic bomb.
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Fascinating detail of a historic strike
- By Kevin on 04-27-04
By: Rodger W. Claire
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Striking Back
- The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response
- By: Aaron J. Klein
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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1972. The Munich Olympics. Palestinian members of the Black September group murder 11 Israeli athletes. Nine hundred million people watch the crisis unfold on television, witnessing a tragedy that inaugurates the modern age of terror.
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Very, very good book. When researched.
- By Roadrunner At Large on 01-26-06
By: Aaron J. Klein
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Israel
- A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth
- By: Noa Tishby
- Narrated by: Noa Tishby
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Israel. The small strip of arid land is 5,700 miles away but remains a hot-button issue and a thorny topic of debate. But while everyone seems to have a strong opinion about Israel, how many people actually know the facts? Here to fill in the information gap is Israeli American Noa Tishby.
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I hope this book will help
- By Wayne on 05-08-21
By: Noa Tishby
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Operation Thunderbolt
- Flight 139 and the Raid on Entebbe Airport, the Most Audacious Hostage Rescue Mission in History
- By: Saul David
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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On June 27, 1976, an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was hijacked by a group of Arab and German terrorists who demanded the release of 53 terrorists. The plane was forced to divert to Entebbe in Uganda - ruled by the murderous despot Idi Amin, who had no interest in intervening. Days later, Israeli commandos disguised as Ugandan soldiers assaulted the airport terminal, killed all the terrorists, and rescued all the hostages but three who were killed in the crossfire. The assault force suffered just one fatality.
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A story of true courage and political resolve
- By Gabe Schwartz on 01-28-16
By: Saul David
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Operation Red Falcon
- By: Ronen Bergman
- Narrated by: Joel Lovell
- Length: 1 hr and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Early on the morning of September 1, 1996, the Israeli military began preparing for a war with Syria they were convinced was imminent. The Israelis had received top-secret intelligence from a Syrian general and informant code-named Red Falcon, recruited 23 years earlier by Mossad spy Yehuda Gil - himself known as "the man of a thousand faces." Gil had been the general's sole handler, the conduit of decades of critical intelligence. But now, on the brink of war, questions arose about who exactly was handling whom. What information was real and what was a lie?
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Interesting
- By Nancy on 01-27-25
By: Ronen Bergman
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Target Tehran
- How Israel Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination – and Secret Diplomacy – to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East
- By: Yonah Jeremy Bob, Ilan Evyatar
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Yonah Bob and Ilan Evyatar describe how Israel has used cyberwarfare, targeted assassinations, and sabotage of Iranian facilities to great effect, sometimes in cooperation with the United States. Even as it takes lethal action, Israel has managed to alter the politics of the Middle East, culminating in the Abraham Accords of 2020. Arab states such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates normalized relations with Israel, and the holy grail of normalization with Saudi Arabia may yet be achieved.
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Couldn’t walk away !
- By ADAM on 01-10-24
By: Yonah Jeremy Bob, and others
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No Mission Is Impossible
- The Death-Defying Missions of the Israeli Special Forces
- By: Michael Bar-Zohar, Nissim Mishal
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In No Mission Is Impossible, Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal return with the intensely absorbing, fast-paced story of 30 of the boldest missions of the Israeli special forces. Bar-Zohar and Mishal depict in electrifying detail major battles, raids in enemy territory, and death-defying commando missions while also sharing the personal stories of both soldiers and top commanders, revealing their hopes and fears. The stories are often of victories, but sometimes they're of immense failures.
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Kept me somewhat entertained. Forgettable though
- By Oliver Nielsen on 05-06-16
By: Michael Bar-Zohar, and others
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Eighteen Days in October
- The Yom Kippur War and How It Created the Modern Middle East
- By: Uri Kaufman
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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October 2023 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, a conflict that shaped the modern Middle East. The War was a trauma for Israel, a dangerous superpower showdown, and, following the oil embargo, a pivotal reordering of the global economic order. The Jewish State came shockingly close to defeat. After the war, Prime Minister Golda Meir resigned in disgrace, and a 9/11-style commission investigated the "debacle." But, argues Uri Kaufman, from the perspective of a half century, the War can be seen as a pivotal victory for Israel.
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gripping history
- By Alex Troy on 11-12-23
By: Uri Kaufman
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Black Flags
- The Rise of ISIS
- By: Joby Warrick
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In a thrilling dramatic narrative, awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, Joby Warrick traces how the strain of militant Islam behind ISIS first arose in a remote Jordanian prison and spread with the unwitting aid of two American presidents.
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So much learned
- By mike flavin on 02-11-16
By: Joby Warrick
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Munich 1972
- Tragedy, Terror, and Triumph at the Olympic Games
- By: David Clay Large
- Narrated by: Gregory St. John
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Set against the backdrop of the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s, this compelling audiobook provides the first comprehensive history of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, notorious for the abduction of Israeli Olympians by Palestinian terrorists and the hostages' tragic deaths after a botched rescue mission by the German police. Drawing on a wealth of newly available sources from the time, eminent historian David Clay Large explores the 1972 festival in all its ramifications.
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Overly long, many errors in pronunciation
- By Michael on 07-30-14
By: David Clay Large
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Spies of No Country
- Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel
- By: Matti Friedman
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The four spies at the center of this story were part of a ragtag unit known as the Arab Section, conceived during World War II by British spies and Jewish militia leaders in Palestine. Intended to gather intelligence and carry out sabotage and assassinations, the unit consisted of Jews who were native to the Arab world and could thus easily assume Arab identities. In 1948, with Israel's existence in the balance during the War of Independence, our spies went undercover in Beirut, where they spent the next two years operating out of a kiosk....
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Absolutely brilliant
- By David Mane on 06-23-19
By: Matti Friedman
What listeners say about Rise and Kill First
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- DmitryB
- 03-09-18
fantastic
amazing details, gripping story. the access this man had was amazing. so many suspenseful moment. highly recommend.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Irvin Wright
- 02-22-18
Chronalogical history of covert operations.
What made the experience of listening to Rise and Kill First the most enjoyable?
I have been alive the entire period of time covered by this book. I remember the news of many of the events told about here. Getting the background information & hearing about the step by step planning & preparation involved in each operation was extremely interesting to me. The amount of detail the author has put together is impressive & quite astonishing, but never boring. I enjoyed the book tremendously.
What other book might you compare Rise and Kill First to and why?
The Conquering Tide, War in the Pacific Islands, 1942 - 1944 Author; Ian W. Toll This is a very well written book with interesting back stories & enough detail to make it seem real & authentic.
What does Rob Shapiro bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Perfect diction & an ability to pronounce the Hebrew & Arab names, presumably, correctly. Just makes the story more authentic & enjoyable for me.
If you could give Rise and Kill First a new subtitle, what would it be?
History of the Israeli Government's Covert Operations
Any additional comments?
Worth my time!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Leslie
- 10-23-18
Shocking.
I had no idea the amount of planning, subterfuge and clandestin planning that it took to create the state of Israel. These truly dedicated men and women sacrificed their friends, family and themselves to ensure that the that their country survived emence pressure from all sides.
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1 person found this helpful
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- epc
- 06-28-23
Fascinating look at Israel and its military/intelligence complex
First, the narration. It was very well done, attention capturing, perfect for the content. The writing was thrilling, emotive and concise. It’s a long book, but never bores. I’m already looking forward to listening again.
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1 person found this helpful
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- FJ
- 03-20-24
Very complex history of targeted assasinations
It is a very interesting story that shows how difficult it is for Israel to defend itself against terrorism. For Israel to survive they need to be smarter than their adversaries and completely dedicated to their survival. Story is very well documented. Fascinating and complicated at the same time.
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1 person found this helpful
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- G8rgirl96
- 10-27-20
Cloak and Dagger tales of the highest order
A fascinating cloak and dagger tale that brings the complexity of Israel's place in the middle east into clarity
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- Gonzalo Senosiain
- 06-14-18
Excellent Book
Amazing way of writing a book and the narrator is very good as well, i really enjoyed this book
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- Shekar
- 11-30-18
a great story...
this is a great story about the middle East crisis and sell worth the time of reading
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- Stephanie
- 06-24-18
Amazing Book
Very interesting history, fast paced with a lot of fascinating details. Probably one of the best military books I have listened too, high recommend it.
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- David R
- 04-16-18
Our world is smaller than we may think
This book really seems to highlight the state of politics today. We see how few people control decisions made in a place as small as Israel and as large as the US; that power really is almost dynastic (i.e. if you make it in the military, or not, you can still find a way to have a botched political career and get a paycheck). This book really dials in on the tension between what is good and right, and what those two concepts look like to different actors. It also filled in a lot of gaps as to why so many countries seem to take issue with Israel. Overall, a fascinating book that will definitely sharpen your focus on politics, and not just in the Middle East. Ultimately, we're all impacted by decisions made, even if they are half way around the world.
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