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Book Summary and Reviews of Kill Khalid by Paul Mcgeough

Kill Khalid by Paul Mcgeough

Kill Khalid

The Failed Mossad Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas

by Paul Mcgeough

  • Critics' Consensus (1):
  • Published:
  • Mar 2009, 512 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

"[It was] all very James Bond. One country needs the antidote held by another, to treat an illness it doesn't understand. The clock's ticking...so the king calls the White House."—Robert Malley, former senior Clinton administration adviser

Little public notice was taken of a 1997 attempt on the life of the Hamas leader Khalid Mishal by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency—even though the audacious hit took place in broad daylight in the streets of Amman, and even though the bungled poisoning immediately set into motion a flurry of international diplomacy, culminating in the direct intervention of then-U.S. President Bill Clinton.

A series of tense, high-level negotiations saved Mishal's life, as the Israelis reluctantly handed over the antidote. But Hamas was saved as well. With his new lease on life, Khalid Mishal became—and remains—the architect of the Hamas organization's phenomenal ascendancy in the intervening decade. Mishal orchestrated the deadly bombings on targets in Israel and, from his bunker in exile in the Syrian capital of Damascus, continues to pull in donations and support from the Islamic world while directing Hamas's vital social welfare programs.

In a headlong narrative—with high-speed car chases, negotiated prisoner exchanges, and an international scandal that threatened to destabilize the entire region—acclaimed reporter Paul McGeough uses unprecedented, extensive interviews with Khalid Mishal himself and the key players in Amman, Jerusalem, and Washington to tell the definitive, inside story of the rise of Hamas.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"This is the definitive chronicle of the Middle East crisis during the Clinton years and in the post-9/11 era." - Publishers Weekly

"A journalistic tour-de-force, and a sobering reminder of how little has been achieved during 60 years of Israeli efforts in Palestine. " - Kirkus Reviews

This information about Kill Khalid was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Paul Mcgeough

Paul McGeough is the former executive editor of Australia's Sydney Morning Herald and the author of three books on the Middle East. He has twice been named Australian Journalist of the Year and in 2002 was awarded the Johns Hopkins University-based SAIS Novartis Prize for excellence in international journalism. He lives in Sydney, Australia.

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