I have seen Steven Spielberg 'Munich' about half a dozen times and never got bored. Eric Bana has simply immortalized the role of Mossad agent Avner in this flick. This movie is based on true story of Operation 'Wrath of God' launched by Israel ( and documented by George Jonas in his book Vengeance) to avenge the death of 11 Israeli athletes brutally killed by Black September terrorists during Munich Olympics of 1972. I was looking for this book 'Vengeance' for a long time but could not buy it because its pretty expensive about 900 bucks on Amazon. I got fortunate this year and i found it in the Police academy and i finished it in 3 days without a break.
The book starts with the story of Avner (changed name) and his training. He was a Sabra (i.e. born in Israel to Jewish parents) and son of a Mossad agent. He was chosen by Mossad chief Zvi Zamir and Major General Ariel Sharon to lead a 4 member strong team to kill 11 terrorists responsible for Munich massacre. He was asked to take the operation by Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir herself. The book goes almost on same line as the movie and varies only in dramatization of certain killings. The team had 5 members - Carl the cleaner, Steve the driver, Hans the forger, Robert the explosive expert and Avner the leader. The team was given complete freedom and full financial resources but the team had to break off all the associations with the Mossad and legally it was on its own so that Israel can deny any responsibility in case of any mishap.
The team was able to kill 8 terrorists out of 11 names given to them though they could not kill Ali Hasan Salameh - the master mind behind Munich massacre, Abu Daoud and Dr Wadi Haddad. Carl, Robert and Hans were killed in this 3 year long operation and the mission was called off in January 1975.
The book records in detail the psychological impact the mission had on its members and also underscores the fissure between Yekke Jews and Galician Jews. The Yekke Jews were mainly from the western Europe and were rich and sophisticated while the Galician Jews came from Eastern Europe and were tough and accustomed to the ghetto life. The top echelons of Mossad and Israel Army were dominated by the Galician Jews and they did not consider Yekke Jews martial material. Avner had a Germanic ancestry and hence a Yekke though Sabra and in the end he was given rather very poor treatment by the Mossad despite of his brilliant leadership.
I really like the definition of terrorism given by the writer. "Terrorism is not defined by the political aims but by the means to achieve it".
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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