• Striking Back

  • The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response
  • By: Aaron J. Klein
  • Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
  • Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (711 ratings)

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Striking Back  By  cover art

Striking Back

By: Aaron J. Klein
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
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Publisher's summary

1972. The Munich Olympics. Palestinian members of the Black September group murder 11 Israeli athletes. Nine hundred million people watch the crisis unfold on television, witnessing a tragedy that inaugurates the modern age of terror.

Back in Israel, Prime Minister Golda Meir vows to track down those responsible and, in Menachem Begin's words, "run these criminals and murderers off the face of the earth". A secret Mossad unit is mobilized, a list of targets drawn up. Thus begins the Israeli response, a mission that unfolds not over months but over decades. The Mossad has never spoken about this operation. No one has known the real story. Until now.

In this riveting account, Aaron Klein peels back the layers of myth and misinformation about the "shadow war" against Black September and other terrorist groups.

©2005 Aaron J. Klein (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

  • Audie Award Finalist, Non-Fiction, Unabridged, 2007

What listeners say about Striking Back

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Terrorism and revenge: two sides, same coin?

Narration: crystal clear, sonorous, expert inflection, perfect enunciation. Simply stellar.

Content: thorough, well organized, patiently explained, informative, compelling. Descriptions and analysis of the ways and whys of terrorism and the revenge it elicits.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Evenhanded and sober documentation

Well researched, written and orated. Not a rah-rah entertaining read, but rather a compelling analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of revenge as a military and political tool to combat evil.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Myth vs. Reality of Covert Operations

Basically, after the Munich Olympic Terrorist event, the Israeli government adopted a policy of assonating anyone that they could find who was involved. The widespread myth is that it might have taken them a decade, but they got every last man, they always get their man, you can't hide from the all knowing Mossad.

The reality is that even the vaunted Mossad was shockingly ineffective and on occasion downright inept. So if the Mossad is approximately the best in the world at this, but still not very good at it, it says something profound about the task.

It would seem that you can use terror against the terrorists, but expecting a lot more than that from covert operations is rarely realistic. Certainly expecting them to "fix" the terrorist problem is dangerously naive.

I found the book a little bit emotionally draining. I seemed to invest in one killing, and then another, and then another. But in many ways this seems strange, the book is neither brutal nor graphic, if anything it's roughly the opposite, slightly clinical.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Deep and dark

This book was well researched. If you want to know what to expect when you cross the Jewish Nation this book will let you know. There is a reason why you don't mess with Israel. In the end you will not get a warm fuzzy feeling for having listened, but you will gain perspective.

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

ALONZO

EXTREMELY DETAILED, WELL PRESENTED, HOWEVER GENERALLY A RESTATEMENT OF WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE. IF HOWEVER THIS IS A FIRST READ , THEN IT IS EXCELLENT. COVERS ALL POINTS. FURTHER, IT CONVEYS ONE VERY PERTINENT MESSAGE, I.E DON'T MESS WITH ISRAEL

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding

Very interesting. The narrator did an excellent job bringing this story to life. It kept me intrigued the whole time.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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definitely worth a listen

absolutely loved it .. the amount of research that has gone into this book is mind blowing. I was hooked on everyword

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

taters4444

a must read for anyone interested in the workings of israeli intelligence. you won't be dissapointed. get it!

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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IDF, IAF... how can you hate someone thats so good

If you hate Israel, then dont bother commenting or reading this book or review. But if you love Israel, youll find this book another amazing account of how the hand of God is on the nation and its protectorate. Detailed and truthful; admitting lapses of intelligence when they happen.

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1 person found this helpful

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Fair and Honest

This account was both accurate and honest. It neither over trumpeted the victories nor under played the failures.

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1 person found this helpful