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

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

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.

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.

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

Outstanding

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

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

engrossing!!

This tale is like a real-life James Bond story without the silly stuff. Justice is applied violently (and sometimes erroneously) as the reader rollercoasts through two decades of Israeli-Arab conflicts. I could barely turn off the recording, doing so only when I had to. I let a friend listen to it (he is not big on audiobooks) and he was enthralled. Can you tell I liked it? One of the best I have heard. You do need some working knowledge of current affairs of the latter 20th century though. The quality of the narration is also superb.

Wow

To say that I was more than a little shocked at the mistakes and incompetence of the Israeli government and security would be an understatement. I chose this book after seeing the movie "Munich". The movie delt with the aftermath and payback of the Munich massacre and this book delt with the actual massacre and how the Israeli athletes were put in a risky situation with not much thought to their saftey. To much trust and too much "passing the buck" quashed any chance these men would have had at survival. A real eye opener!

Excellent Account

Excellent account of events surrounding the massacre. Some great insights about how islamic terrorist have been around for decades.

Insight into the last 50 years of Israel-Palestine

This book provides insight not only into Israel's response to the killing of 11 athletes at the 1972 Olympics, but also reveals allows the reader to see the influence the policy decisions had on the succeeding generations of Israel's leaders-those who became Prime Minister over the next 50 years were a part of the policy decision or the instrument of it. The policy to exact vengeance against those who planned and carried out the attack clearly had mixed results and those mixed results continue into today. The policy on both sides of rejecting co-existence will continue to consume the region, and the innocent will continue to die alongside the combatants of both sides.

History of the Israeli Secret Service

This is less a story of the Munich Massacre, than of the Israeli hunt for those involved in that event. Having just listened to the CIA history, Legacy of Ashes, the difference between the two secret services is striking. While the author notes that mistakes were made, and questions whether the assassinations made any difference, the Mossad at least had the appearance of competence, unlike the CIA.

The recording is very good. While I cannot vouch that all of the foreign names were properly pronouced, Mr. Rudnicki did a credible job; is there anything that he can't read? I think I would listen to him reading a phone book!

In all, I enjoyed the book. It is very specific regarding names places and dates, so its it good for those who enjoy history. The pacing is good. It is written from an Israeli standpoint, but is fairly balanced, noting the mistakes that were made and some of the motivations involved. I found it a fascinating listen.