Israel
Rise and Kill First – The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations
Reviewed by BERNIE BELLAN
How many of us get a vicarious thrill when we hear about yet another daring Israeli exploit that leaves people everywhere wondering: “What will they do next?”
Yet, as often as we may have heard stories of one or another of Israel’s security agencies, especially the Mossad, accomplishing some incredibly daring feat, whatever it is that may be in the news at a particular period has always been accompanied by the following qualifying statement: “Israel would neither admit nor deny that it had anything to do with….”.
The mystery surrounding Israel’s intelligence and counter intelligence operations only lends a greater aura of supreme capability to Israel. One wonders, therefore, whether pulling back the curtains on Israeli intelligence operations through the seven decades of her existence is at all damaging to that country’s reputation.
Yet, that is precisely what Israeli military censors have feared ever since the state was established. In this comprehensive and lengthy tell-all, author Ronen Bergman has managed to thoroughly pierce the veil of secrecy that has enveloped Israel’s spy networks. In doing so, however, he has apparently infuriated those in Israel who are tasked with keeping a tight lid on those secrets.
At the end of his book, Bergman notes that he did not receive cooperation from any of the branches of Israel’s security services in writing his history of targeted assassinations conducted over the years by the Mossad, Shin Bet, and Israel Defense Forces, although he did conduct over 1,000 interviews in advance of writing this book. Here is how the historian for one very secretive division of the Mossad, known as “Caesarea” responded to Bergman’s request for an interview:
“Even if I were the last person in the intelligence establishment who has not yet made the pilgrimage to you, I would by no means cooperate with you. I despise whoever it was that gave you my phone number, just as I despise you.”
Notwithstanding the admonition not to talk to Bergman, hundreds of individuals associated with one or another branch of Israel’s security apparatus did just that. Some of them were old men who figured that there would be no harm in divulging details of secret operations with which they were involved – at this late stage in their lives. Others were individuals who bore grudges against certain individuals who, they alleged, had actually harmed Israel’s interests through their recklessness or, in some cases, timidity.
Then there were those individuals who had been at the forefront of defending Israel through the years, and who were deeply critical of two aspects of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s policies which, they have argued, are detrimental to Israel’s long term security: His disregard for the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians, and his undermining of the accord that was reached with Iran that saw Iran retreat from its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
One name shines through in this book as a true hero though, and that is former Mossad chieftain Meir Dagan. Interestingly, Rise and Kill First is the third book I have now read in the past six months that lionizes Dagan. The first was Harpoon, which told of Israel’s success in attacking the financial sources of terrorism; and the second was Bibi, the most recent biography of Binyamin Netanyahu.
In all three books Dagan’s brilliance as a commando, strategist, organizer, analyst, and finally, as a top-level bureaucrat who was not afraid to challenge the prime minister of the day, whoever it was, should ensure his place near the very top of the list of individuals who have been key to safeguarding Israel from all conceivable threats.
It would be impossible to summarize the content of Rise and Kill First in a short book review, since it is a painstaking examination, not only of the hundreds of targeted assassinations in which Israeli security forces have been involved over the years, it is also a meticulous detailing of many of the methods Israel has employed in order to infiltrate all levels of so many of her enemies’ security apparatuses.
Is Bergman betraying any secrets, therefore, in writing this book? For anyone who has had any sort of fascination with the lethal reputation of the Mossad, for instance, Bergman is simply recounting stories that have been bandied about for years. What he does, however, is obtain first hand confirmations from the very men who were involved in so many of those exploits, many of which are legendary. He never puts anyone still active in espionage at risk by revealing their names. Instead he uses code names to refer to certain agents.
It hasn’t been all glory though for Israeli undercover operations against her enemies. Many were botched, others proved to be quite useless. What Bergman explains quite thoroughly though, is the level of planning involved in most intelligence and counter-intelligence operations. In addition, despite the oft-hurled accusation that Israel targets civilians or is indifferent to civilian casualties Bergman shows that to be a largely unfair criticism in Rise and Kill First. So many operations that might have removed dangerous foes in the enemy camp were scotched at the last minute when civilians were found to be in the area of the targeted killing.
As I noted though in the last issue of this paper – before I had finished reading this book, one individual in particular, Ariel Sharon, came in for some fiery criticism from Bergman over his indifference to sacrificing civilian lives in Lebanon when he orchestrated Israel’s totally unnecessary war in that country in 1982. Later in life, however, Sharon seemed to admit to the error of his ways when he held back from ordering a full-scale assault on Palestinian areas during the second Intifadeh (which began in 2000 when Ehud Barak was Prime Minister.)
In addition to missions that went awry, Bergman also discusses targeted killings that may have accomplished their purposes, but whose consequences ultimately proved to be more harmful to Israel’s security interests, particularly when it came to targeting certain leaders of Palestinian groups. This is not to say that the overall policy of targeted killings has proven unsuccessful; just the opposite: Not only has it put fear into the hearts of Israel’s enemies everywhere, from a tactical perspective removing individuals who were responsible for planning and implementing terrorist acts has been and remains an indispensable component of Israel’s war against terrorism.
What Bergman demonstrates though is that, in certain cases, elimination of someone who might have been considered relatively moderate only led to that person’s replacement by someone who proved to be far more militant – and dangerous to Israel, in the long term. Because Rise and Kill First is so very long – and detailed, Bergman takes the time to make the case for prudence in planning targeted assassinations by explaining why certain operations that might have seemed ostensibly successful were, in actual fact, counter productive.
The book is written in chronological order of events, so it is possible to see the growth and increasing sophistication of Israel’s targeted assassinations through the years. As Meir Dagan noted to Bergman in an interview he gave him following his forced retirement from the Mossad in 2010 (when he simply could not abide Netanyahu’s obsession with attacking Iranian nuclear installations – something Dagan feared would result in a terrible cost to Israel in both military and civilian deaths), the Mossad had grown so adept at taking out individuals – even in Tehran, for instance, that whereas previously a mission might take months to plan and implement, during the time Dagan was head of the Mossad (from 2000-2010), the agency grew capable of carrying out as many as four or five targeted killings a day.
Rise and Kill First is both a history and a guide to undercover operations. I’m sure that, by now, it has been made required reading in every intelligence agency in the world – even in countries like Iran. If you weren’t in awe of Israeli brilliance in carrying out the most dangerous operations imaginable before, after reading this book you will have no doubt that Israel is capable of just about anything when it comes to taking out her enemies. We should be grateful though, that for the most part, the men responsible for leading the agencies responsible for carrying out those lethal operations have been quiet, cool thinkers and not egomaniacal politicians.
Ri and Kill First – The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations
By Ronseen Bergman
Published
January 2018
Random House
753 pages
Israel
It’s Not Over Until It’s Over
By ORLY DREMAN (Jerusalem, Nov. 16, 2025) When the live hostages were returned a stone was lifted from our hearts. It was like going from Memorial Day to Independence Day. It is a relief after two years of sadness and worry about the hostages being tortured. With the ceasefire it feels good not to think every ambulance alarm is a siren and that we must run to the shelter. I would like to take things out of the shelter- like mattresses, chairs, water, first aid kit, a generator, flash light, batteries, games and canned food and put back the stuff that was there before when it was just a storage room, but it is not over. I do not see tranquility in the horizon. The children used to ask the grownups to take money to the shelter in case the house is destroyed and they will have nothing left. They also ask if they will have to be soldiers when they grow up and if they might die. We want a better future for our children. My two nieces, one from Tel Aviv and one from the center, plus several good friends whose houses were hit, can now return home.
In days of turmoil it is important to build hope and strength. The whole country was one big family due to our Jewishness, comradeship, the connection of each one of us to each family in Israel. We missed the days of quiet and freedom. Now you see more people shopping at the malls and going out to restaurants without feeling guilty; we would like to be bored.
We are living with uncertainty. It is not a question if Iran attacks, but when. Our people have gone through so much and lost so much. Living in existential stress, we are now going back to routine tension; however, now we already have chronic sleep disturbances. The reservists got out of the war, but the war will never leave them – what they saw and experienced – the trauma and the thoughts that never leave. Therefore, many soldiers, as well as survivors of Oct 7th, have committed suicide. The reservists are also those who paid the highest prices, not just on the battle fields, but also when they returned to civilian life. Because they served in the army during such a long war, they were fired from their jobs or lost their businesses and they are in debt.
Early in the morning we wake up to hear the news. There is no good news – only the names of those who were killed (even during the cease fire). We check if any dead hostages were returned. These are the values we were raised on; we do not leave anyone behind. Hamas is returning them slowly, one every few days. The relatives of the fallen who are still in Gaza are going through a storm of emotions. We cannot heal until everybody is back home. Then come the funerals – which are heart breaking, but it is a closure for those bereaved families. Hearing about Jews being attacked somewhere in the world is already considered normal. I recommend reading a book by Eli Sharabi called “Hostage.” After being tortured in captivity he returned to find out that his wife, his two daughters, and his brother were murdered. He tells about the starvation, the darkness, the loneliness, the physical and mental pain. He is a very brave, strong, optimistic man who chose life.
In the last few weeks there have been many reports about Iran, which is rushing to develop missiles for which they are getting the components from China and North Korea. Hamas and Hezbollah we cannot believe; they are already rearming. For every terrorist that is killed hundreds of new ones arise. We believed them in the past and then came Oct. 7th.
The ceasefire is not significant to Hamas. Only this week they returned an Israeli hostage who was taken into captivity eleven years ago during a ceasefire. If they do not return all the bodies then we feel in our hearts that it is not over. They suck hatred from birth. They are incited at the mosques and at school. Killing Jews is the most grand thing for them. They say out loud that there will never be reconciliation. Peace talk for them is a weakness because if you have talk then you cannot attack and they want to attack. Whatever we offer them – they want more and more. They know how important the holiness of life is to us, so they use it to demand more all the time. Maybe Hamas did not defeat us militarily, but they did beat us politically. The situation of Israel in the world is the worst it has ever been. We are isolated economically and socially. We feel like a child who is excommunicated by bullies.
Once again we still have hope that the words of the prophet Isaiah will happen: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore”.
Israel
Israeli Parliament Advances Death Penalty Bill for Convicted Terrorists
The Israeli parliament has advanced a bill that would mandate the death penalty for Palestinian terrorists convicted of killing Israeli citizens, with some lawmakers believing it would prevent future prisoner-release deals.
In a vote held late on Monday – the first of four needed for the measure to become law – the bill passed with 39 in favor and 16 against, out of 120 lawmakers.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben–Gvir had called on all political factions to back the bill, which he has said was aimed at creating deterrence against “Arab terrorism.”
“This is how we fight terror; this is how we create deterrence,” he said in a statement after the initial vote. “Once the law is finally passed — terrorists will be released only to hell.”
SOME PARTIES BOYCOTTED MONDAY’S VOTE
The bill will now move to a parliamentary committee for further debate before a second and third vote. It is not guaranteed that it will become law, with several key political parties having boycotted Monday’s initial vote.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid was quoted by Israeli media as saying that he would not vote in favor of the bill.
The PLO, the Palestinian national umbrella political group, condemned the vote, with Palestinian National Council Speaker Rawhi Fattouh calling the draft law “a political, legal, and humanitarian crime”. The vote was also criticized by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
Israel abolished the death penalty for murder in 1954, and the only person ever executed in Israel after a civilian trial was Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Nazi Holocaust, in 1962.
Ben–Gvir has argued that imposing the death penalty would deter anyone considering an attack similar to the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed nearly 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and resulted in 251 hostages being taken to Gaza.
Israel stopped its ensuing military campaign against Hamas last month, when a tenuous ceasefire was agreed that included the release of 20 remaining living hostages held in Gaza, plus the remains of deceased ones in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
PRISONER RELEASE DEALS
Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees since October 2023 in exchange for the release of the hostages that were being held by Palestinian terrorists.
Most of the hostages have been released except for the remains of three deceased Israelis and one foreigner.
Tzvika Foghel, a member of Ben–Gvir‘s Jewish Power party and chair of the parliamentary national security committee, where the bill will now be debated, said imposing the death penalty would mean no more prisoner deals.
Palestinians who have been released have included many convicted of serious crimes, including murder.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 2023 attack on Israel, was released in 2011 as part of an exchange of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for one Israeli soldier held in Gaza. Some Israeli politicians such as Ben–Gvir have, during the war in Gaza, opposed the release of Palestinians who were involved in the killings of Israelis.
Ben–Gvir handed out sweets to fellow lawmakers after the initial vote passed. Critics noted that, in Gaza, some Palestinian militants had handed out sweets to the public after the October 2023 attack.
Israel
Israel report by former Winnipegger Bruce Brown
10 minutes
(Posted Dec. 24, 2024)
02:11 AM: Sound asleep.
2.11.01 AM: Wide awake. Awoken by a blaring missile alarm. Incoming. Took me no time to react. Ivan Pavlov would be proud. I quickly scooped up my dog. Grabbed my glasses. An inhaler. My phone and power cord. And sprinted to the safe room. Right across the hall. My wife overseas on vacation. So did this one alone. Er with my dog. We have 90 seconds to reach safety so no real panic, relatively speaking.
2.11.09 AM: In my safe room. Slid shut the heavy steel slabs across the window. You can hear this happening throughout the building. Kinda like a horror movie. Screech. Slam. Screech. Slam. Screech. Slam. Then mine. Screech. Slam. Next I jumped across the room and slammed shut the heavy, reinforced, steel door. It also makes a slamming sound, a really loud one. Then slumped down on the couch with my dog. With some level of relief. Where is this missile coming from. Can’t be from Gaza, they don’t have the capability anymore…I hope. Nor Lebanon, living too far south…I hope. Yemen? Possible. Those dang Houthis?
2. 14 AM: Oh oh. Need to pee. Like really bad. Once in the safe room, you should stay there for ten minutes. Unless there is another siren. Each siren requires a ten minute respite. Respite? Odd choice of words as you are not really resting. Way too tense. Especially as you can occasionally hear the booms of intercepted missiles up above. Kind of unnerving. Back to my need to pee. Its quite dangerous leaving the room during this period. Should your place be hit by the missile or falling debris from the sky. You don’t want to be caught with your pants down, literally, hovering over your toilet. And condos have been hit in Rehovot with some death and much destruction. Hmmm. To pee or not to pee. That is the question. Whether tis better to suffer the pangs of having to pee or the missiles of outrageous fortune. You get the point.
2.14.10 AM: Peeing in the bathroom.
2.14.40 AM: Back in the safe room. With my dog. Sitting on the couch. Fiddling with the remote control. I work in hi tech. The semiconductor world which can be pretty complex. But I simply have not mastered the remote. Really want to see what’s going on. Where is the missile from. Are there more attacks elsewhere in the country. Pushing this button and that button But the TV still off. Okay. Will check my cell. Although the connection sometimes comes and goes when shuttered in the heavily reinforced concrete and steel safe room. Works! Ya! Showing three bars. Sometimes four. Checking my feeds. But no news yet.
2.17 AM: Seriously. I need to pee again. Like really bad. Dang prostate! To pee or not to pee. That is the question…. You get the point. I chose to pee. This time I don’t actually slam shut the heavy, reinforced, steel door. And my dog follows me out. This could get complicated. But first things first.
2.17.10 AM: Peeing in the bathroom.
2.17.40 AM: Chasing after my dog around the condo. Poncho!!! There he is. In the living room. Like master. Like pet. He too is relieving himself. Probably the tension. Dogs can sense these things. “Faster Poncho!. Faster!” I encourage him.
2,18.02 AM: We’re back in the safe room. The heavy, reinforced, steel door slammed shut. And then I start worrying. What if I have to pee again. Its really dangerous out there. Idea! I’ll bring a cleaning pail in here. And if worse comes to worse. Well, I am alone. Sans my dog.
2.18.22 AM: I dart for the cleaning cabinet in the bathroom to grab the pail. Making sure the heavy, reinforced, steel door is shut less my dog run out again. Wait! As it dawns on me at 02.18.22 AM. This is not the smartest thing to do. At least I could have combined grabbing the pail with actually having to pee again. Like maybe I could hold out for the next three minutes or so in the safe room. No urgent need for the pail. But I am already there….
2.18.25 AM: Grab the red cleaning pail
2.18.28 AM: Back in the safe room. The heavy, reinforced, steel door slammed shut again. Siting on the couch with my dog again. Red pail glaring at me from the side of the room…daring me. But my bladder is relaxed. I try the remote again. I feel like my 85 year old mother who often complains about getting her remote to work. I console myself thinking that it must be the batteries. Hmmm. Maybe a mad rush for the utility room to get some new batteries. But that would be mad. I’ll take care of it in the morning. Only a few more minutes and I can safely leave the safe room and go back to bed.
2.19.45 AM: I pour myself a glass of mineral water. This I store in the safe room per Homefront commands. Fresh batteries not, hrmph. As I down the water I realize this is probably not the best idea. Less it creates the urge to pee…. Alas no. Start surfing my feed again. The intercontinental missile was fired by those crazy, dang Houthis from Yemen. All of central Israel sent to their safe rooms. Dang Houthis! The next couple minutes go by pretty smoothly. Although seems like an eternity.
2.21 AM: Back in bed. Albeit sleep comes slowly as my adrenaline starts to reside.
As it were. Israel bombed the dang Houthis that night. For the third time since the outbreak of the war. In retaliation for them firing over 200 ballistic missiles and 170 drones at Israel, which fortunately had not resulted in much damage. We struck them with over 60 bombs in two air raid sorties. Destroying mainly military targets as well as ports and energy infrastructure. Maybe that will teach them for waking me -and a million other Israelis- in the middle of the night.
As it were. Falling debris from the dang Houthi attack landed on a school in central Israel, forcing its collapse. Fortunately and thank G-d it was the middle of the night. Sometime between 2:11 AM and 2.21 AM. So no casualties. Can’t even imagine the tragedy had this strike occurred mid-day.
As it were. I changed the batteries in the remote. It works just fine now. And I left the red cleaning pail in the safe room….just in case. But I hope the dang Houthis finally learned their lesson. Although probably not.
As it were. Two nights later. Another 2:00AM missile from the dang Houthis. . They just wont let me sleep….
As it is. Please continue donating to the Israeli war and revival efforts. You may have given earlier. But give again. The financial costs to Israel are and will be billions. Billions! Sderot and Metulla and Tel Avi and Haifa are Israel’s front lines. Israel is the diaspora’s front line.
Bruce Brown. A Canadian. And an Israeli. Bruce made Aliyah…a long time ago. He works in Israel’s hi-tech sector by day and, in spurts, is a somewhat inspired writer by night. Bruce is the winner of the 2019 American Jewish Press Association Simon Rockower Award for excellence in writing. And wrote the 1998 satire, An Israeli is…. Bruce’s reflects on life in Israel – political, social, economic and personal. With lots of biting, contrarian, sardonic and irreverent insight