Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad

Fantastic Read!

When I first started this book, I wasn't sure what to expect. Would the book be a faithful history on the topic? Would it read like a crack-pot conspiracy theory? Would the details be so fuzzy because of the sensitivity of the subjects that it would be almost worthless? Would the author come across as pro-Israeli? Or anti? Would there be a noticeable bias? In the end, I was incredibly pleased with this book! It is a deep, powerful look at Mossad, both from it's earliest roots to it's current problems. It was incredibly professional on how it approached the agency, being honest about their successes and failures. Thomas doesn't offer any apologies or praise for Mossad, except those that come from past and current directors, agents, or others involved in the processes. If half the stories in here are true, it's unbelievable. The only place that the book didn't hold together well was near the end. The last 6 chapters, which were added in later editions, didn't have the same coherency of story that the previous chapters did. Instead, the author began to wander in his points, and frequently repeated whole paragraphs of information from previous chapters, as if he couldn't remember what he had told the reader before. The last 6 chapters were the only ones that I had difficulty getting through. If you're interested in the Middle East, the history of the nation of Israel, or just enjoy a great spy-thriller, look no further than this great look at Mossad! Highly recommended!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great Read, so far!

I'm only a third of the way through this book, but it reads very easy and contains plenty of spy master thrills. Thomas has done an excellent job of weaving the Mossad's adventures, and in some cases mis-adventures, through world history. I'm unsure as to whether or not he has an axe to grind, with Israel, but so far seems to be fairly objective in his story about one of the world's top spy organizations. What is amazing, to me, is the spy-vs-spy dealings between the nations of the world. Israel spying on the United States and vice versa, or the United States spying on England, toss in the Soviet Union, the Germans, Spaniards, etc., and it's an amazing tale of everyone trying to get their hands in one another's cookie jars. I'm anticipating that the rest of Thomas' story will continue to be as enlightening as it is thrilling.

Fantastic book!

Highly recommend this book to anyone intersted in Mossad. The book contains an amazing assortment of accomplishments and failures since the birth of Mossad. It does jump around a bit but nevertheless a great read!

good detail but jumps around a lot

this has great detail of missions ect. but it does jump back and forth in time on every chapter. also there was a detail that was wrong in the book. it was stated that pope air force base was in GA. its in NC.

Highly Recommended - A great history of this shadow intel agency

This is an amazingly fascinating book full of a number of riveting mission accounts, spanning from the formal creation of Israel to modern day. Covers events both well known and relatively unknown in strong storytelling fashion. This book never got boring; a great piece of military history.

Fascinating!

The reader will never view a country's intelligence agency in the same light again after reading "Gideon's Spies." Both spy and non-spy fans alike will be amazed at the depths that Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, has in both U.S. and world events. From the death of Princess Diana to the aftermath of the attacks on 9/11, Gordon Thomas covers every aspect of the Mossad's involvement.

really informative

I liked the book. Easy to learn, organized well. I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in that subject.

Great book

This is a great book because you, as a reader, enter to this magic world of political intelligence and diplomacy, and the author gives us a lot of information about a lot events that happend few years ago. I enjoy the two chapters about the Vatican and Mossad.

SPELLBINDING

Fascinating book that is hard to put down. Author personally interviewed many of the major players. I especially enjoyed the chapter about Rafi Eitan, capturer of Eichmann. Well researched and written.

Great book

I found this book to be highly informative and it gives one a sence of how the intelligence community functions. I don't know why this book was given a rating of one star by some other person, maybe he is from the PLO or something.. hehehe. Anyhow, I greatly enjoyed this book and recomend it to anyone who is interested in finding out about the Mossad.

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