I'm Aiton Weinstein. And I'm Naor Menninger, and you're listening to Two Nice Jewish Boys.

A little over a week ago, in the early morning hours of April 21st, Fadi al-Batch was walking down a road in Gombach, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

He was on his way to the local mosque for Don Prayers.

Suddenly, two men on a motorcycle drove up, drew their pistols, and gunned down Al-Bach with

no less than 14 bullets before driving off.

Seven years prior to his assassination, Fadi Al-Bach had moved to Malaysia from Gaza to research

and acquire weapon systems and drones for Hamas, the ruling power in the strip.

This ostensibly made him a target for Israel's international spy agency, the Mossad.

Of course, this is not the first such mission undertaken by the clandestine organization. The Mossad, along with the other branches of

Israel's intelligence apparatus, has a long, dark, and often contentious history of targeted

assassinations dating back to the very founding of the state.

If we listed the qualifications and accomplishments of Dr. Ronan Bergman, we'd have no time

left to talk about his incredible new book, Rise and Kill First, the secret history of Israel's

targeted assassinations. Suffice it to say, and this isn't going to be short, that Dr. Bergman is a senior

political and military analyst for Yaddiota Ha'anot, Israel's largest daily newspaper. He's been a guest

lecture at countless universities, including Princeton, Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge, where he

received his Ph.D. in history. He's written for numerous international newspapers, including the New York Times, the Wall

Street Journal, Newsweek, and the Times.

And finally, he deserves a special congratulations for recently becoming a staff writer for

the New York Times Magazine.

We are thrilled to be joined today by Dr. Ronan Bergman to talk about his new book and

Israel's history of covert killings.

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