Ronen Bergman is the senior correspondent for military and intelligence affairs for Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s largest daily paid newspaper, and a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, where he reports on intelligence, national security, terrorism, and nuclear issues. Bergman is the author of five bestselling Hebrew-language nonfiction books and The Secret War with Iran, which was published in the United States by Free Press. Bergman is the recipient of the Sokolow Prize, Israel’s most esteemed award for journalism, and the B’nai B’rith International Press Award, among other honors. A member of the Israeli bar, he graduated with honors from the University of Haifa Faculty of Law and clerked in the attorney general’s office. A winner of a Chevening Scholarship from the British Foreign Office, he received a master’s in international relations from Cambridge University, where he was also awarded his PhD in history.
“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
“Authoritative . . . a chilling portrait of the evolution of the
assassination program . . . Bergman has a reputation as an
indefatigable journalist who has developed hundreds of informed
sources in the defense establishment over the past two decades. . .
. Since World War II, Bergman calculates, the Jewish state and its
pre-state paramilitary organizations have assassinated more people
than any other country in the Western world.”—The Washington
Post
“A must-read . . . [Bergman is] Israel’s premier chronicler of the
country’s principal spy services—the Mossad (Israel’s CIA), Shin
Bet (its internal security organ) and Aman (military
intelligence).”—Newsweek
“A textured history of the personalities and tactics of the various
secret services . . . makes the case that Israel has used
assassination in the place of war, killing half a dozen Iranian
nuclear scientists, for instance, rather than launching a military
attack . . . [Bergman] says that while the [United States] has
tighter constraints on its agents than does Israel, President
George W. Bush adopted many Israeli techniques after the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001, and President Barack Obama launched
several hundred targeted killings.”—Bloomberg
“Leading any list of notable nonfiction books—Jewish or not—must be
Ronen Bergman’s Rise and Kill First, a massive and extravagantly
well-sourced history of the use of the tool of assassination by
Israel’s intelligence services. . . . One’s mouth is often agape
with amazement, even shock, while reading.”—Haaretz
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