A new book has revealed the bizarre techniques that Israel used to carry out attacks against their enemies. The description of the assassination techniques involved poisoned toothpaste and exploding mobile phones. The number of assassinations that was reported is said to be around 2,700 people in the last 70 years in Israel.
The secrets of the Israeli assassination techniques have been documented in a book called "Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations". After conducting more than a hundred interviews and reviewing through countless documents, the book even describes techniques like armed drones and using spare tires with remote control bombs.
Based on a Bloomberg report, the book describes the technique of the poisoned toothpaste slowly taking the enemies life in a month's time. These bizarre methods are used for assassination purposes rather than waging a war. The book describes killing half a dozen scientists without the use of any military force.
The man behind the book, Ronen Bergman, the intelligence correspondent for Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, persuaded many agents to describe their state-sponsored killing techniques. Interestingly, he persuaded the agents to even use their real name and some even agreed.
As per reports, the book also describes the nation using radiation poisoning to kill the Palestinian leader, Yassar Arafat. However, the officials have consistently denied those allegations. Bergman wrote about Arafat's death in 2004 and mentioned that it fits the targetted killing pattern, however, he said that the Israeli military censored him from revealing the details.
As per reports on Bloomberg, the book title comes from an ancient Jewish Talmud passage "If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first." Bergman said that most interviewees cited the phrase and said that they justified their actions based on it. Even a military lawyer declared that the assassination techniques were legitimate acts of war.
Despite interviewing top officials like former Israeli Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, the author of several books said that the Israeli secret services have often tried to disrupt his research and warned officials to not talk to the author.
One of Bergman's close aide and source Meir Dagan acknowledged these techniques and said: "In a car, there are 25,000 parts on average. Imagine if 100 of them are missing. It would be very hard to make it go. On the other hand, sometimes it's most effective to kill the driver, and that's that."
