"Rise and Kill First"; Ronen Bergman's Book on Israeli Assassinations

Ronen Bergman, an Israeli journalist whose books on the activities of his country's intelligence and security organizations have garnered attention in recent years, has dedicated his latest book to a controversial topic: the assassinations that, according to him, Israeli security agencies have carried out against the country's "enemies" around the world. Israeli media claim that Dr. Ronen Bergman has "revealed many secrets" that have remained classified until now in his new book. The New York Times has also reported that the book outlines the history of Israel's targeted assassinations. The book, published in Hebrew under the title "Hishkam Lehergo" meaning "Rise (and first of all) kill him," has also been written by the author in English titled "Rise And Kill First," and was made available to readers worldwide in February of this year; simultaneously, the German version of the book will be immediately available in its first edition. There is a saying in Israel that people say, "If someone has come to kill you, you should get up and kill him first"; do not give mercy to someone who has come to kill you! In recent days, American and European media have published numerous articles related to the book's subject, interviewed the author, and he has been a guest on various programs in Israel. In an interview with Israel's Channel 10, Bergman stated that in his book, based on thousands of interviews he conducted and reading thousands of intelligence documents over eight years, he also examines the history of Israel's intelligence community. According to Bergman, his book is not only about the Mossad; it also addresses the internal security agency, Shin Bet (or Shabak), and Aman (the military intelligence organization of the Israeli army), but the "main star" of the topics he discusses is parts of the Mossad forces. He added that his country's intelligence agencies had "thousands" of explanations regarding the words and sections of his book, and he arranged much of the material in a way that would not contradict the mentioned explanations and would not violate Israeli censorship regulations. However, Bergman added in an interview with Channel 10 that many topics that were previously secret in Israel are now published on the official website of Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency. For example, in one incident, while an Israeli photographer had previously been criticized for some of his photos, now those very photos have been used on the Shin Bet website to explain that incident. Ronen Bergman told the network that the roots of Jewish intelligence organizations in this land date back to 1907 (41 years before the establishment of Israel) during the time of "the formation of the first armed Jewish group in modern times." According to him, his book "depicts how Jewish temperament and the history of Judaism have played a role in shaping Israel's unique intelligence community." He adds that this has had "dramatic effects" on the formation of Israel. Ronen Bergman also told NPR, the American public radio network, that David Ben-Gurion, (the first Prime Minister of Israel after the country's independence in 1948), whom Bergman describes as "the most important Jewish person in the last thousand years," opposed political assassinations and said, "This is not a weapon that the Jewish nation should use." However, Bergman adds that this belief changed in the minds of "all the founders of Israel" even before the establishment of Israel and as a result of the Holocaust (the targeted killing of Jews by the Nazi regime). According to Bergman, his own parents were Holocaust survivors. According to Terry Gross, based on an interview by Dave Davies on NPR with Ronen Bergman, the targeted assassinations that the Israeli author addresses in his book range from officials during the British mandate in this land in the 1940s to the killing of leaders and commanders and figures of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestine Liberation Organization and others who have been considered "enemies of the Jewish state." Bergman told Channel 10 that his book covers completely new topics, even related to September 2017, up until the book was finalized for publication. According to Terry Gross, the assassinations have been carried out through shooting, poisoning, bombing, and drone attacks. Terry Gross added that Ronen Bergman depicts in his book that Israeli assassination teams have been effective in eliminating their targets, but sometimes Israeli leaders have paid a moral and political price for these orders. "Yasser Arafat was the target of Israeli assassination plans for decades." According to the New York Times, one of the Israeli assassination plans to kill Yasser Arafat was planned in 1982 when the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization was in Lebanon, and Israel had recently been engaged in a fierce war in Lebanon during Menachem Begin's premiership. A month after that war, on the afternoon of October 22, 1982, the Mossad received apparently credible information from its sources that Yasser Arafat would fly from Athens to Cairo the next day on a private plane. Two agents from the "Kisaria" section of the Mossad arrived at Athens airport to see for themselves that Arafat was boarding the plane. Ariel Sharon, the then Minister of Defense, and Rafael Eitan, the then Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, strongly supported killing Arafat, and General David Ivry, the then commander of the air force, was pressured to assist in the plan; two F-15 fighters were prepared for operations from the Tel Nof base, but General Ivry told one of the pilots, "You have no right to fire without my permission; even if communication equipment is disrupted and you do not hear my voice, you have absolutely no right to fire." At 14:05 on October 23, Mossad agents in Athens reported to the headquarters in Tel Aviv, "He (Arafat) is here; he has definitely been identified; it is him." General Ivry, in an interview with Bergman, said he wanted more details from Israeli intelligence officials about why Arafat wanted to travel to Cairo on that specific day; Israeli intelligence agencies confirmed that there was no reason for Arafat's trip to Egypt that day. Ivry added, "I had to know if he was really a terrorist or not?" Mossad agents in Athens reiterated that they were absolutely certain it was Arafat and that he was boarding the plane; it was now 16:30; his plane took off. General Eitan ordered, "Shoot down his plane." Two fighters took off; however, I was still hesitant; Mossad leaders pressured that it was Arafat himself; but I told the army chief, "Rafoul (nickname of General Rafael Eitan), the identification of Arafat is not one hundred percent certain." At 16:55, 25 minutes after the fighters took off toward Athens, another report reached Mossad that Yasser Arafat was not in Athens; I ordered the pilots to wait. At 17:25, Aman (the military intelligence organization of the Israeli army) and Mossad finally managed to inform that the person boarding the plane was not Yasser Arafat but Fathi Arafat, a pediatrician and founder of the Palestinian Red Cross and a close relative of Arafat. According to Bergman, Dr. Fathi Arafat was on the plane with thirty Palestinian children who had survived the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon and were being taken to Cairo for treatment. Bergman wrote in his book that Israel had been trying to kill Yasser Arafat for decades. The PLO leader eventually died in the winter of 2004. Many Palestinians still "swear" that Israel poisoned and killed him. No definitive evidence has been presented for this accusation to date. It seems that in the coming weeks, more content from Mr. Bergman's book will become the subject of further reports in global media. Ronen Bergman, 45, a writer and commentator for Yedioth Ahronoth, a graduate of Cambridge, has previously dedicated his books mainly to Israeli intelligence and military affairs and decision-making. Ten years ago, he addressed behind-the-scenes issues of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah Lebanon in a book titled "Point of No Return" and also discussed Israel's intelligence and security efforts against Iran's nuclear program. Bergman has recently won the annual "Sokolov" journalism award in Israel.