This is impressive
I found it on Gibbon Jockey . As he says stick around until the last 2 minutes where he really wraps it up well. It’s amazing that this isn’t/wasn’t more of a story but we had to hear about crazy ministers and $150 dollar haircuts for weeks.
Vengeance is a novel by George Jonas detailing the Israeli counter intelligence department’s response to the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic games. A group of Palestinian terrorists broke into the Olympic compound and took 9 Israeli athletes hostage. All of the hostages died either in captivity or in a rescue attempt. In response to this Israel undertook a covert operation to assassinate 11 people who were believed to have masterminded or been involved with the attack. The story is told from the point of view of the team leader Avner who is regular field agent but is none the less picked to lead this mission. The story is like a movie plot but since it is supposedly true it becomes all the more fantastic. The charge of the Israeli team was to kill the men in fantastic ways, not just to gun them down on the street but to kill them when they feel secure at home or among their peers. For example one way they devise is for a telephone to explode when it is picked up. The plan is not only to take revenge but to attempt to make terrorists paranoid as well as deter and disorganize them.
The story is wildly compelling. It begins with training and background on counter intelligence and covert operations. The firearms teacher tells them they never draw their gun to threaten only to kill. Once your gun is out your cover is blown and you are useless. The only real question is if you believe that it is true. The printing of the book I read had an epilogue describing the dispute over whether or not the book is actually true. You have to wonder why someone who is this undercover decides to come out and tell his story and it goes into what is likely the motivation behind that at the end of the book.
The book reads very much as a narrative and not just a recounting of events which is always nice for books based on historical events. I watched the movie “Munich” which is the Steven Spielberg adaptation of the novel while writing this review and was only half interested in it. It does a very good job of following the story closely but for some reason it didn’t capture me as much as the book did. Generally I try to watch the movies first and then read the book that way I enjoy both but failed on this one.
Overall if you like spy like material or are interested in the Mossad and Israeli counter intelligence then this is something you won’t be disappointed in.