Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team
by Simon & Schuster

	Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team
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Book Description

<I>Vengeance</i> is a true story that reads like a novel. It is the account of five ordinary Israelis, selected to vanish into "the cold" of espionage secrecy -- their mission to hunt down and kill the PLO terrorists responsible for the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.<P><P>This is the account of that secret mission, as related by the leader of the group -- the first Mossad agent to come out of "deep cover" and tell the story of a heroic endeavor that was shrouded in silence and speculation for years. He reveals the long and dangerous operation whose success was bought at a terrible cost to the idealistic volunteer agents themselves.<P><P>"Avner" was the leader of that team, handpicked by Golda Meir to avenge the monstrous crime of Munich. He and his young companions, cut off from any direct contact with Israel, set out systematically to find and kill the central figures of the PLO's Munich operation, tracking them down wherever they lived.<P><P>The mechanics, the horror, the day-by-day suspense of what they did surpass by far anything John le Carré or Robert Ludlum could imagine, as they themselves were tracked in turn (and some killed) by PLO assassins, changing identities constantly, moving from country to country, devoting their young lives to the brutal task of vengeance.<P><P><I>Vengeance</i> is a profoundly human document, a real-life espionage classic that plunges the reader into the shadow world of terrorism and political murder. But it goes far beyond that, to explore firsthand the feelings of disgust and doubt that gradually came to torment each member of the Israeli team, and that in the end inexorably changed their view of the mission -- and themselves.<P><P><I>Vengeance</i> opens a window onto a secret world, a book that at the same time inspires and horrifies. For its subject is an act of revenge that goes to the very heart of the ancient biblical questions of good and evil.<P><P>

Reader Reviews

When I was thirteen years old (circa 1985), I saw a book on the shelves of the famous "A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books," located in the Larkspur Landing Shopping Center, Larkspur, CA. It was the picture of the Israeli Uzi on the cover that caught my attention. Like many 13 year old boys, I was fascinated by sub-machine guns and automatic pistols. I bought the book because of the cover, but I was in no way ready for the tale I was about to be told. It was the tale of the Israeli Mossad avenging the deaths of the athletes that had been murdered at the Olympic games in Munich (circa 1972). The book read like a Ludlum novel, only this story was true! Contrary to the cover, all the assignations were carried out with .22 caliber ordnance (the choice of Mossad assassins), and not by the 9mm Uzi. This book opened my eyes to a historical tragedy that happened while I was still in diapers -- a tragedy not mentioned in American High School textbooks. And it gave me a fine respect for the prowess and professional nature of Israeli Intelligence (HaMossad leModi'in v'leTafkidim Meyuhadim).