Kill Khalid: The Failed Mossad Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas »

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.

A leading international correspondent reconstructs the pivotal moment in the rise of Hamas—a page-turning narrative reminiscent of The Day of the Jackal.

The Washington Post - Greg Myre

In Kill Khalid, Australian journalist Paul McGeough uses the botched assassination as the jumping-off point for a timely and thorough examination of Hamas, highlighting the ways in which Israel has intentionally and unintentionally aided its rise…Far too many earnest, lumbering books on the Middle East propose recycled versions of the path to peace. McGeough doesn't offer a solution to the conflict. But he provides a highly instructive account of how Hamas emerged as a potent force and why its faithful honor Mishal as the "martyr who did not die."

Acknowledgments ix

Who's Who xi

1 The Tourists 1

2 Village of the Sheikhs 4

3 The Tap Dancer from Amman 17

4 The Education of a Terrorist 30

5 "Have You Guys Lost Your Minds?" 40

6 Arafat's Circus 49

7 The Palestinian Project 61

8 The Bearded Engineer in a New York Cell 78

9 Violence Is the Only Weapon 95

10 A Little Obscurity Is Good 110

11 "They Used a Bizarre Instrument" 129

12 Mishal Must Not Die 144

13 "Who the Hell Is Khalid Mishal?" 161

14 Pulling a Rabbit from the King's Threadbare Hat 178

15 The Price Bibi Paid 196

16 The Legendary Image of Mossad 215

17 Brother Against Brother 230

18 Handcuffed and Deported 247

19 Dead Men Walking 267

20 Follow the Money 294

21 Government from the Trenches 312

22 "No Gold Bars Left" 336

23 Everything Is Not as It Seems 349

24 An Eye for an Eye 365

25 Taking the Holy Land to Court 383

26 The Man Who Wouldn't Die 396

Epilogue 415

Chronology 419

Notes 425

Index 457