Book Review: Mossad, Michael Bar-Zohar & Nissim Mishal

Overview

I got to know about this book last year from a Facebook status on a friend’s timeline. First things first, my gratitude to him for posting that status. This book is easily one of best that I have read till date. It’s shocking, thought provoking, deeply engaging and a little unsettling too. The Confessions of an Economic Hitman introduced me to a world where USA used economic warfare to manipulate and dominate the world. Similarly, this book presents a world where Israel, through its intelligence services agency, Mossad, persistently thwarts the dangers to its existence and eliminates the Nazi criminals from the time of World War II and, other terrorists from the Arab world.

Fascinating Missions by Mossad

Altogether, this book highlights many important missions of Mossad like

a) capture of Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann from Buenos Aires in Argentina,

b) search for a kid named Yoselle to save Israel from a religious war,

c) heist of a MIG 21 plane from Iraq,

d) the systematic elimination of members of Palestinian group Black September – the outfit that carried out an attack on Jews in 1972 Summer Olympic (Munich, the movie),

e) the war of 1973 against Egypt and Syria and

f) the wiping out of an under construction secret nuclear facility at Iran.

The details of these missions have everything from forged passports, undercover agents, secret locations, smuggling of weapons, deadly chemicals, insane amount of money, booby traps and exhilarating successes to doomed failures for the agency. Reading details about planning and execution of these missions was mind-boggling!

Final Word

This book has made a big impact on me. At the very  least, for some days, I grew suspect & unsure of my own surroundings and often looked at strangers with an investigative point of view. It also made me realise the enormity of chaos that erupts when two dearly held opposing beliefs clash against each other as it destroys so many human lives and other resources. (Arab/Israel conflict is akin to India/Pakistan, may be better or worse off). Slowly but surely though, I fell back into the routine of my life and felt reassured that thankfully my world is very different from the one in which Mossad agents thrive and carry out their operations. I felt lucky, safe and free, at the same time, I also felt more aware and informed.

For all the people at Mossad, whatever fuels their fire; patriotism, security, necessity or any other motive, a big salute for just being brilliant at what they do, and a big thumbs up to the book that brought it all out to the world. Happy Reading!

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