Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israels Deadly Response

Striking Back: The Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response. Aaron J. Klein, Author, Mitch Ginsburg, Translator Random House ( NY).
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If you're going to run around advocating the murder of the innocent and assist anyone who actually carries out an attack, you become fair game. Klein also discusses at some length the botched mission in Lillehammer, Norway, where a waiter was misidentified as Ali Hassan Salamah, one of the prize Black September targets, and killed by mistake. Several Israeli agents were arrested and convicted in Norwegian courts. The sloppiness of the mission showed that the Israelis had grown complacent and arrogant about their successes.

After that, of course, the politicians pulled back farther than necessary, and the Mossad began refining both its target list and opting for less spectacular assassinations. Not only does Klein name names when it comes to several of the missions supposedly run by the assassin called "Avner" in Speilberg's film, but he notes that the most important hit -- the interagency strike on Beirut that took out several important terrorists in a place where they felt safe -- was led by Ehud Barak, a future Israeli prime minister.

And while Spielberg and radical screenwriter Tony Kushner say in Munich that terrorism increased as a result of the hit teams.

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Klein proves that the opposite is the case. In fact, most of the highly visible terrorist acts that happened after the launch of Ceasarea had been planned months earlier. By the time a year passed, the disruption in the PLO networks due to the loss of key players and a shift to defensive mode led to an undeniable lull in Palestinian terrorism. Within a few years, terrorist acts against Israelis abroad had all but ceased. After reading this book it is hard not to conclude that Speilberg and Kushner drew all the wrong lessons for all the wrong reasons.

Terrorism cannot be treated as a law enforcement problem. War is messy and imprecise, and that cannot be used as an argument against waging it. It's not whether specific missions are successful or the target is important, but whether the effort itself bears dividends.

When the film Munich falsely says every act of terrorism that happened after the assassinations was in answer to the Israeli response, it is an argument that is forced onto the story to make a case against George W. Bush's war on terror—especially in Iraq. It's impossible to imagine the something the professionals we meet in Striking Back sitting at the dinner table and dithering over whether their targets are guilty enough to hit—that's the soft privilege of American liberals safe in their Hollywood mansions.

With his concise, exciting and informative book, Aaron Klein strikes back against a cause celebre fraud against Israeli and American counter terrorism. It should settle the argument, but it won't.

'Striking Back' Look at Munich Killings, Aftermath

After all, evidence matters little to the people still maintain Sacco and Venzetti were framed, Stalin opposed Hitler out of principle, and the Israelis botched their revenge against those who murdered their athletes and then beat themselves up to boot. So much for "the cycle of violence. The Black Count Review: Into the Fire Review: The Road to Freedom Review: The New Dealers' War Review: American Sniper Most Viewed Review: No, I think--you know, when you're working and when you know the way intelligence organizations are working, it's really logic.

They won't rely on anyone but themselves. They won't give these pieces of information, you know, the data that they're going to go for this guy or that terrorist to a group that they know is selling information. It's in a way even ridiculous. I want to ask you a more textural question about the kinds of people who took part in these killings in Europe after Munich. The central drama of the movie, written by Tony Kushner and another screenwriter and directed by Steven Spielberg--the central drama is the deepening moral ambivalence of a Mossad agent who is involved in this.

I mean, he's tormented by doubts about what he is doing.


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Does the anguish and self-doubt and that inner torment, does it ring true to you? Does it suggest to you the people you've met or you know of who were involved in these things--or were they just totally confident of the right of what they were doing?

'Striking Back' Look at Munich Killings, Aftermath : NPR

I spoke and interviewed more than 50 sources, most of them ex-Mossad agents and commanders and leaders. I didn't come across with someone who had doubts. They are very proud of what they did. They are--they still see themselves as the carrier of the sword, the people who did a holy work, a holy job, in this whole apparatus of assassinations.

I don't see--I didn't met with anyone who had remorse or second thoughts or--whatsoever. I mean, the central psychological drama of this movie doesn't ring true to you. It's a movie, but it doesn't have to relate to reality. You know, it doesn't have to be part of reality. It's good for the movies. In your book, you tried to sort out the different motives that would work in the Mossad, in Israel's effort to go after Palestinian activists in Europe.

To some extent, it was meting out rough justice. To some extent, it was revenge, you acknowledge to some extent.

Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response

But it was also deterrence, you say. Deterrence is something that is very hard to measure. It's very hard to say, you know, it's working or it's not working, but it's out there.

We've saved lives by doing this, and we've prevented things from happening. We've deterred them from happening. Well, Aaron Klein, thank you very much for telling us about the story that you report in your book, "Striking Back. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.

Munich massacre remembered

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