Vengeance

Vengeance is a true story that reads like a novel. It is the account o f five ordinary Israelis, selected to vanish into "the cold" of espion age 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. This is the account of that secret mission, as relat ed 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 shroude d in silence and speculation for years. He reveals the long and danger ous operation whose success was bought at a terrible cost to the ideal istic volunteer agents themselves. "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 P LO's Munich operation, tracking them down wherever they lived. The mec hanics, the horror, the day-by-day suspense of what they did surpass b y far anything John le Carré or Robert Ludlum could imagine, as they t hemselves were tracked in turn (and some killed) by PLO assassins, cha nging identities constantly, moving from country to country, devoting their young lives to the brutal task of vengeance. Vengeance is a prof oundly 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 an d 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. Vengeance opens a window onto a secret world, a book t hat 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 questi ons of good and evil.