Aaron J. Klein

I picked this book up because I'd come across a similar title and was reading reviews and all of them pointed to this book as the one book on the Munich Olympic massacre that people should read. I'd watched the movie Munich and a few short documentaries on the massacre, but my knowledge of the events was limited to popular culture. But after reading Aaron Klein's book, I feel as though I've discovered the truth.

Striking Back was published in 2006, so Klein is able to look at the events from show more a post 9/11 point of view, which I found to be extremely important. He was given unprecedented access to materials that remained hidden from public view until he asked.

What makes this book so good is not just limited to Klein's access to documents and people. It's the way he gives us an inside look at everything. We're not just talking about the athletes -- their families, the Israel Olympic Committee, the Israeli government, Mossad, the German government, as well as the terrorists themselves. But even then, Klein takes us on another journal.

It would be all too easy to write a biased book, focused on just the events of Munich, glossing over blame and Israel's response through rose colored glasses. Klein does not fall into the trap. Not only does he leave no one untouched, he explains the failings of both countries and then goes on to talk about Israel's response. While Munich takes a fictional view of realistic events, Striking Back fills in all the holes. Klein writes of the assassinations -- of the guilty, the supposed guilty and the accidental assassination of innocents.

Klein's writing is strong, he doesn't cushion the truth nor shy away from it when it's less than flattering. I found it to be a chilly story, even moreso because in some ways this feels like the beginning of something we've become used to -- non-state sponsored terrorism ending in a war that no one can win ad that is still going on. show less

"Striking Back" provides a good background on the Israeli - Palestinian conflict which endures to this day. The book centers on the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre of the Israeli olympic team, and details a number of security failings of the Munich authorities which allowed the events to unfold as they did. Klein then tells the story of Israel's policy of preventive assassinations of the leaders of the Black September terrorists wing, using archived files of Israel's security forces. show more Unfortunately, you also get a sense of the endless cycle of attack and revenge on both sides, with a peaceful solution apparently still many generations away. show less

I really liked the chapters about the Munich Olympics Massacre, they were both informative and gripping. However only 13 of the 35 chapters are about that event, the rest covering Israel's assassination and counter-terrorism programs. Not even assassinations related to Munich, simply how the Munich Massacre acted as the catalyst for Israel's decades-long assassination program. This aspect of the book didn't interest me, so the post-Munich chapters quickly became tedious. If the author had show more focused in solely on the Munich Massacre it would have been a solid 5 stars. show less

This is a fascinating, in-depth behind the scenes look at the Munich Olympics massacrea and the many years of plotted and accomplishing revenge assassiations by Israel's Mossad. The at times casual application of lethal shooting and explosives - with some collateral damage - comes across as irresponsible to do inthe apartments and streets of Europeans cities, etc.

There is also fascinating details on methods and misfires in this well-researched book.

Good narration.