Rise and Kill First

The Talmud says: If a man comes to kill you, rise early and kill him first. This killer instinct is hardwired into Israel's DNA. From the very beginning of its statehood, protecting the interests of the country has been every Israeli citizen's paramount responsibility. Assassinations have been used countless times, on targets large and small, sometimes in reaction to attacks against the Israeli people and sometimes preemptively.

Praised by Seymour Hersh for his amazing access and sources, Ronen Bergman has gained the cooperation of many current and former members of the Israeli government (including Shimon Peres, Ariel Sharon, and Benjamin Netanyahu), military and intelligence services (the IDF, the Mossad, and Caesarea, a secret unit within the Mossad) as well as never-before-seen files, to bring us deep into the heart of Israel's most secret operations. Bergman traces, from statehood to the present, the gripping events and thorny ethical questions of Israel's targeted killings, which have influenced the course of history and in many ways shaped the Israeli nation itself.