Operation Wrath of God: The Secret History of European Intelligence and Mossad’s Assassination Campaign

Europe likely aided Israel during its 1970s campaign of assassinations of suspected members of the Palestinian resistance, according to this meticulous account from international relations scholar Guttmann (The Origins of International Counterterrorism). Drawing her conclusions from encrypted communications she discovered in a Swiss archive, which had been circulated within a network of Western European intelligence agencies known as the Club de Berne, Guttmann shows that Mossad seems to have been reliant on these communications when selecting targets for its international assassination campaign in the wake of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre (when Israeli athletes were killed by the Palestinian resistance group Black September). The assassinations themselves are recounted with the flair of a prime-time police procedural: one is described as “daring” and “spectacular,” while another is “taken from the plot of a James Bond film.” Guttmann also levies “charges” against each target in order to “substantiate the claim” that the assassination campaign “mainly targeted key operatives” in the Palestinian resistance, though she doesn’t always succeed, as some of the pretexts seem flimsier than others. After the 1973 Lillehammer affair, in which Mossad mistakenly assassinated the wrong man, Israel faced public backlash over the killings; however, as Guttmann notes, Club de Berne relations did not falter—in fact the network expanded, indicating acceptance of Mossad’s operation. It’s an unsettling revelation of Western intelligence agencies’ extrajudicial activities. (Aug.)