Product Description

The gripping true story of the Israeli-led hunt for the men responsible for the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972, which has inspired Steven Spielberg's forthcoming film epic 'Munich'. 'Avner' was an agent of only twenty-six when he was summoned out of relative obscurity to head a specialist Israeli team crack team and track down the men responsible for the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the Munch Olympics in 1972. Vengeance is the awesome account of this operation: it retells how the team set about their task with ruthless application, stalking their Palestinian targets and carrying out precisely timed executions. But it also reveals the other side of the coin: the terrible paradox that results when those in power, in a desperate bid against terrorism, resort to the very tactics of their enemies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36249 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 388 pages

Review
'The book is as crowded with convincing details as a Breughal.' Ken Follett, New York Times 'This is a story of our times.' Mail on Sunday 'Unusual and riveting.' Guardian

About the Author
George Jonas is a Toronto-based writer and journalist. He frequently writes about topics related to the Middle East, counter-terrorism, and law. In addition to 13 books, three of which have become national and international bestsellers, Jonas has written three works for the stage, and has written and/or produced and/or directed over 200 dramas and documentary dramas for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, including the award-winning radio and TV series, The Scales of Justice (1981-1996). His journalism has featured in the Daily Telegraph, Saturday Review, the National Review, The Wall Street Journal, and United Press International.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating and perplexing
George Jonas' 1985 book about the Israeli secret service's response to the appalling massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games is a brilliant read that begs almost as many questions as it answers.

What's not in doubt is that the athletes were killed by a Palestinian terror group called Black September. What's also not in doubt is that, over the next few years, a number of leading Palestinian intellectuals, activists and (at least in some cases) probable guerrilla group leaders were assassinated in various cities across Europe and elsewhere. Jonas' book is based on the recollections of an ex-Mossad agent, referred to in the book as 'Avner' but who has since broken cover as an Israeli-born, New York-based security consultant named Juval Aviv, who claimed to have been the leader of an assassination squad charged with the task of killing the planners of the Munich massacre. In the course of the mission, which lasted several years, three of the five-man squad died (two killed, one apparently blowing himself up by accident). When 'Avner' finally responded to his controllers' plans to call off the mission, he refused to undertake any more missions for Mossad and, as a direct result, all the back pay he had accumulated was confiscated by Mossad. At least that's what he says, and if it's true it does explain a little about whatever residual bitterness led him to want to tell his story.

It has to be admitted that this behaviour (demanding loyalty from subordinates but giving little back) is in keeping with the little we know about Mossad. It also has to be admitted that nobody in Israeli intelligence has yet come out to confirm that any of Avner's story is true; but that also might be expected of an organisation that would place a high value on deniability.

Jonas' book is a gripping and highly enjoyable read, and a lot of it rings true (at least to this reader, who has no personal experience of intelligence work whatsoever). For me, it's marred by his tiresome sermonising on how every single dissident group in the West is somehow in the pay of Moscow - it may have seemed more plausible in 1985, but the USSR fell a few years later, and nobody suggests that anti-globalisation protesters are in the pay of Vladimir Putin. The problem with writing about intelligence work is that everybody has to seem like more of an expert than the next guy. It's an amusing theme in the book, but Jonas falls victim to it as much as everyone else does.

The best thing about the book is that it served as the source material for Steven Spielberg's troubled and flawed but also deeply troubling and moving movie 'Munich', a film which Jonas has criticised for being too pro-Palestinian. Spielberg and his chief screenwriter Tony Kushner saw to the heart of the moral and political dilemmas of the story in a way that Jonas fails to, which is why their film - which is a fictionalised version of something that may already be a fiction - is actually a more honest examination of the Israel-Palestine conflict than Jonas' ostensibly 'true story'. Sometimes the imagination is more honest than the journalist's sense of a good story.

This is a fine airport read, but precisely because it's supposed to be true I would take it with a pinch of salt. The Spielberg movie, on the other hand, which makes no bones about the stuff that it made up, is more true to the reality of the situation.

Heart stopping Story!
This was the best book I have read all year. It was absolutely thrilling. I do not believe all the controversy surrounding this story because the author apparently took such great pains to discuss his sources and research. In my opinion, the controversy adds to the story by immersing you into a world of intrigue and espionage. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys fast-paced real life thrillers

credible bitter revenge
After showing the film "Munich" I wanted to read the book. I was surprised, as I expected a novel, but this isn't entirely fiction, but mostly a literary essay and the author says he was counselled by Avner, the supposed Israeli chief of the operation against the Palestinian authors of the killing of the Israeli wrestling team at Olimpic Games of Munich in 1972. I think the film remains loyal to the book although here, the action, personages and motivations are best explained. The plot is known: five Israeli commandos are charged with the task to eliminate these terrorists. But there are some differences. Firstly, Avner's father, a retired commando of the Mossad is a man with bitter remembering of his own past actions and the behaviour of Israel government, so he warns Avner about the many dangers of these operations. Avner, over 25 years old and captain of commandos in the reserve doesn't understand, but he fears there's some truth in his father's words. However Avner accepts the mission with the others, the philosophical Hans, the device expert Robert, Steve, the expert driver, and Carl, the counterfeiter of documents. This is curious as truly, excepting Avner, no one lives in Israel, but mostly they use to reside and work in Europe with Germany as the main operative centre. But they are all Israeli patriots.
The whole revenge action takes two years and begins with four success. The targets are killed with the help and information from a solid organization in Paris, founded by an old member of the Resistance against the Nazis named "Papa" and his son Louis. But after these firsts success, Avner begins to understand his father, because he thinks if a small group of trained men with financial support can achieve more or less easily these killings, any other group also can, as the organization of "Papa" and others, works for anybody with money enough. So, soviet KGB, fully operative at these times and the Mafia are also in his mind because then, the victims can be themselves or his families. Avner has a young pregnant wife. This question, and also the feeling his killings don't go to solve anything as the terrorist after a brief time ever will have another man or chief, affects more or less the moral of all the group excepting Steve, a less reflexive man. Effectively, the revenge has to cost lives to the group and there's a sad, dubitable end with a deep recapitulation about the real utility of these operations. Is very good the terrible portrait of Jeanette, the Dutch professional killer, a woman I think very well described as no reactive in front of life or death owing to a terrible inner hate toward mankind that justifies his profession.