Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team

David Charters was Deputy Director, Centre for Conflict Studies, University of New Brunswick.

This book purports to be a “first hand” account, using a ghost-writer (George Jonas), of the activities of an Israeli counter-terrorist assassination team sent out to avenge the murders of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. The central character, on whose behalf Jonas has written the book, is “Avner” (pseudonym), the self-styled leader of the Israeli “hit-team.” The book traces Avner’s recruitment by Mossad (the Israeli Secret Service), the formation of the team, and the planning and carrying out of a series of assassinations of Palestinian terrorist leaders.

This is a curious and problematic book. There is no doubt that between 1972 and 1975 several Palestinians suspected of involvement in terrorism were assassinated in Europe. The question that this book fails to answer satisfactorily is whether these events occurred in the manner that “Avner” relates. Although Jonas has done his best to document the account from other sources, this effort falls short owing to two serious obstacles: first, his obvious and admitted lack of familiarity with the subjects of terrorism and intelligence activity; and second, “Avner’s” evasiveness and reluctance to authenticate some of his own claims. Consequently, Jonas had had to take a great deal on faith and so, unfortunately, must the reader.

That act of faith is not made any easier by the knowledge of the book’s unusual publishing history. Reports and reviews in the foreign and Canadian media cast considerable doubt on “Avner’s” reliability as a source and on the factual authenticity of his account. His story had all the makings of a thriller, even a best seller — in short, it was a publisher’s dream. But during the five years that “Avner’s” tale made the rounds of the publishing world, its credibility came into question. “Avner” apparently changed his story when its shortcomings were exposed. What was being passed off as a “true” account began to sound more like a work of fiction. The final published version does little to dispel such doubts, especially since Jonas has admitted that certain facts were withheld or deliberately altered.

Terrorism and the responses to it are usually cloaked in the clandestine cover that is part of their nature. This is equally true of the activities of secret services. It is second nature for any serious scholar in these fields to treat personal, first-hand accounts of such activities with caution and skepticism. In the case of Vengeance, even the general reader would be well advised to do likewise.