Ronen Bergman’s Rise and Kill First is not simply a history of Israel’s intelligence services. It is a meditation on the uneasy marriage between morality and raison d’état in the modern world. Written with the authority of a seasoned investigative journalist, the book traces the evolution of Israel’s policy of targeted assassination from the state’s founding to the present day, situating it within the broader dilemmas of global counterterrorism and clandestine warfare.
A Nation’s Doctrine, Drawn From Ancient Wisdom
At its core, Bergman’s narrative is about survival. Israel, a small state surrounded by hostile neighbours, developed a doctrine that prioritised the pre-emptive elimination of perceived threats. The title itself is drawn from the Talmudic injunction, “If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first,” and that phrase encapsulates the ethos that has guided Israeli security policy for decades.
Bergman meticulously documents operations against Palestinian militants, Iranian nuclear scientists, and Hezbollah commanders, revealing both the tactical brilliance and the moral ambiguities of these missions.
Assassination as Statecraft: The Central Paradox
From a world political perspective, the book forces readers to confront the paradox of assassination as an instrument of state policy. On one hand, Israel’s programme has undeniably neutralised immediate dangers, disrupted terrorist networks, and projected deterrence. On the other, it has often fuelled cycles of retaliation, hardened ideological resistance, and raised profound questions about legality and legitimacy.
Bergman’s account resonates globally because it mirrors dilemmas faced by other powers. The United States with its drone strikes, Russia with its poisonings abroad, and European states grappling with covert counterterrorism measures all find their experiences reflected in Israel’s story. In this sense, Israel’s experience becomes a case study in the costs of security pursued through extrajudicial means.
A Literary Achievement That Works on Two Levels
Literarily, Bergman’s style is journalistic yet cinematic. He writes with the pace of a thriller, but his narrative is grounded in exhaustive research, interviews with intelligence officials, and declassified documents. This duality, gripping storytelling combined with scholarly rigour, makes the book accessible to general readers while offering genuine depth for specialists in international relations and security studies.
It is precisely this blend that has drawn both acclaim and criticism: admiration for its revelations, and unease at its implicit normalisation of killing as policy.
The Question Democracies Cannot Escape
The book also raises a larger philosophical question that no democracy can comfortably evade: can democratic states preserve their values while engaging in practices that fundamentally undermine them?
Bergman shows how Israeli leaders, from Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu, wrestled with the tension between necessity and morality. Yet the decisions were often made in secrecy, shielded from public scrutiny, leaving citizens to grapple with the consequences only after the fact. This tension is not uniquely Israeli. It is emblematic of the modern state’s struggle to reconcile transparency with security.
What the Book Ultimately Tells the World
In the end, Rise and Kill First is less about Israel alone than about the global condition of perpetual insecurity. It illuminates how states, when confronted with existential threats, may resort to measures that blur the line between defence and transgression.
Bergman’s achievement lies in forcing readers to confront uncomfortable truths: that assassination can be both effective and corrosive, that survival may demand actions that erode the very principles one seeks to defend, and that the shadow wars of intelligence services are quietly shaping the moral landscape of our century.
A Mirror Held Up to the World
This is why the book matters far beyond Israel. It is a mirror held up to the world, reflecting the dilemmas of power, morality, and survival in an age where the boundaries of war and peace are increasingly indistinct. For anyone seeking to understand not just Israel, but the condition of the modern state in a century of perpetual shadow conflict, Rise and Kill First is essential, unsettling, and important reading.
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