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To many thriller fans, the word "Mossad" evokes the incomparable Israeli espionage agency which possesses an uncanny ability to ferret out intelligence and to act upon it. The two authors burnished that reputation with their nonfiction Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service.

After Israel's 1948 war for independence, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion ordered the establishment of the Institute ("Mossad" in Hebrew) for Intelligence and Special Operations. Ben-Gurion's intent was to coordinate the existing security services: the Shabak (aka "Shin Bet" or the Internal Security Service, which is akin to the FBI in the US); the Aman (the army's military intelligence); the special branch of police; and the research division of the foreign ministry. The first two plus the newly formed Mossad would be the prominent players, but only the latter would be directly answerable to the Prime Minister for the intelligence community as a whole. Mossad's roots sprang from the Haganah, the Zionist paramilitary organization, thus beginning the decades-long tradition of each ramsad (or Mossad chief) being selected from among the highest ranks of Israel's military.

It was the first ramsad Reuven Shiloah who had determined the Mossad's mission:

Beside all the functions of a secret service, we have another major task: to protect the Jewish people, wherever they are, and to organize their immigration to Israel.

This book was neither non-partisan nor a comprehensive history. The two authors didn't mention the necessary preparatory intelligence gathering but focused on the days when the operations went live. Major successful ops, primarily those before the 1980s, were described. Triumphs included the abduction of the Nazi war criminal - SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann - from Argentina and his subsequent trial in Israel and Israel's response to the murders of its athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Some situations went FUBAR in spectacular fashion in the 1980s and 1990s such as the international revelation of Israel's nuclear program and the failed assassination of Hamas leader Khaled Mash'al in Jordan.

I'm a big fan of crime and thriller fiction. Israel's Mossad has occasionally popped up in those thrillers as a minor, yet crucial contributor for intel. So I had expected to enjoy the nonfiction Mossad much more than I actually did.

This book's early chapters detailed the Mossad's assassinations of scientists who were involved in Iran's nuclear program. I maintain two different standards -- what I find acceptable or entertaining in fiction isn't necessarily also true in "in real life." This chapter raised disquieting thoughts - such as, is it acceptable to enter a foreign country and assassinate their law abiding citizens? The Iranian nuclear programs hadn't yet progressed to the stage of making weapons. Nonetheless, the Mossad had decided to act preemptively. When the later chapters described the assassination ops against internationally designated terrorists, however, I had no such compunction. The ease in which Mossad agents were able to execute their ops in foreign nations was impressive. I think one strength the authors had not singled out, however, was the loyalty from the extensive Jewish diaspora in assisting Mossad's intelligence gathering.

The second issue I had with this book was the authors' organization. Their first edition was published in 2010 to great acclaim in Israel. They updated their 2012 edition and their editorial choices for the most recent segments were a bit confusing, especially as they were on top of the entirely unfamiliar (to me) names for people and places. I read this with my atlas in close proximity.

Mossad was my first nonfiction book centered around Israel, a part of the world for which I possess only rudimentary knowledge. What I did end up liking most was the peripheral glimpse I got of the Middle East's history albeit one entirely from Israel's perspective. From the neighbors Israel labeled as "enemy," I learned how the Jewish people (or at least those in leadership during the 20th century) saw themselves in the world.

[Prime Minister Golda Meir] mentioned the horrid memory of the Holocaust and the tragic march of the Jewish people through the ages, always persecuted, hunted, and massacred.

This mindset made the Mossad's efforts to relocate Jewish people from Syria and Ethiopia, both which had become extremely inhospitable, all the more emotionally moving.

I also liked learning what my own country's covert ops were occasionally up to or at least whenever the two countries' interests were in alignment. The US - Israel relationship has not always been in harmony as the first Bush administration had ousted a Mossad spy employed in the US' intelligence community.