Striking first won’t win you too many friends but for Israel it’s the only survival option

A tip for our security agencies, Dave Sharma, The Australian, Monday:

On my summer reading list is Ronen Bergman’s Rise and Kill First, the history of Mossad … The book’s title … is also a reference to the policy of intelligence-driven disruption operations, often undertaken pre-emptively, that have formed a pillar of Israeli statecraft since its foundation.

David Horovitz, The Times of Israel, January 12, 2018:

Ronen Bergman’s Rise and Kill First is a chronicle “of a long string of impressive tactical successes, but also disastrous strategic failures”. Tiny Israel, beset by Arab attempts at destruction and the “perpetual menace” of terrorism, developed a highly effective military, arguably the world’s best intelligence agencies, and, in turn, “the most robust, streamlined assassination machine in history”.

Ethan Bronner, The Independent, January 28, 2018:

Poisoned toothpaste that takes a month to end its target’s life. Armed drones. Exploding mobile phones. Spare tyres with remote-control bombs. Assassinating enemy scientists and discovering the secret lovers of Muslim clerics. (Ronen Bergman’s) new book chronicles these techniques and asserts that Israel has carried out at least 2700 assassination operations in its 70 years of existence.

Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman, Haaretz,  March 27, 2016:

On September 11, 1962, a German scientist vanished … Heinz Krug had been at his office, and he never came home … We can now report … that Krug was murdered as part of an Israeli espionage plot to intimidate German scientists working for Egypt.

Ray O’Hanlon. The Irish Echo, February 16, 2011: 

It’s been 11 years since Mairead Farrell, Sean Savage and Danny McCann met their end at the hands of the British SAS. In the years immediately after the killing of the three IRA members in Gibraltar … four months before the shooting, the Israeli secret intelligence service, Mossad, placed the IRA trio under surveillance on the basis of its belief that they were making contact with Arab arms dealers on behalf of the Provos.

Middle East Monitor, December 28:

In the Mossad’s dictionary, you will not find the word impossible. For the Mossad, excellence is not a luxury, it is the only way to survive in the world of the shadows.

i24NEWS, December 14:

Since its founding on December 13, 1949, the Mossad has shown its capability in a number of complex, risky and successful operations. Among them, the kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1961; the hunt and targeted assassination campaign against the masterminds behind the Munich Olympics massacre; and the uncovering of tens of thousands of documents on Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons program in 2018.

Cameron Stewart and Paul Maley, The Weekend Australian, May 25, 2013:

Israel has refused to replace its top spy in Australia because of lingering mistrust of the federal government, after its Mossad chief was expelled and his name leaked and published during the false passports scandal in 2010. (It is understood) that the Israeli government and Mossad blame the Australian government for the name disclosure, believing it was a further political act of retribution for the controversy that arose after forged Australian passports were used by Mossad agents in an operation to assassinate a senior Hamas official in Dubai.