Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team is a 1984 book by George Jonas

George Jonas

George Jonas is a Hungarian-born Canadian writer and columnist. He is the author of 15 books. They include Vengeance , the story of an Israeli operation to kill the terrorists responsible for the 1972 Munich massacre...

 describing part of Operation Wrath of God

Operation Wrath of God

Operation Wrath of God ,This title was an invention of later writers, and was most likely not used by the Mossad itself. also called Operation Bayonet, was a covert operation directed by Israel and the Mossad to assassinate individuals alleged to have been directly or indirectly involved in the...

, the Israeli assassination campaign launched after the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre

Munich massacre

The Munich massacre is an informal name for events that occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Bavaria in southern West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually killed by the Palestinian group Black September. Members of Black September...

. In some countries it was published under the title Vengeance: Sword of Gideon.

The main source of the book is also the main character, Yuval Aviv

Yuval Aviv

Juval Aviv is an Israeli-American writer and security consultant. He may be best-known for his claim that he is the source of the 1984 book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas, on which Steven Spielberg's 2005 film Munich was based...

, known in the book as Avner. A Mossad

Mossad

The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....

 officer, he is recruited to lead a small team into Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 to assassinate a number of suspected PLO and Black September

Black September (group)

The Black September Organization was a Palestinian paramilitary group, founded in 1970. It was responsible for the kidnapping and murder of eleven Israeli athletes and officials, and fatal shooting of a West German policeman, during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, their most publicized event...

 militants. Each of the book's chapters deals with a separate stage of the mission, including the background to each assassination. Although Jonas claimed to have verified Aviv's story as much as possible, critics, including members of the Israeli Intelligence Community

Israeli Intelligence Community

The Israeli Intelligence Community is the designation given to the complex of organizations responsible for intelligence collection, dissemination, and research for the State of Israel...

, have called into question story's validity. It has inspired both a 1986 made for television movie called Sword of Gideon

Sword of Gideon

Sword of Gideon is a 1986 television film about Mossad agents hunting down terrorists associated with the 1972 Munich massacre. It was first shown on the CTV network in Canada as a four hour miniseries and later on the HBO television network. Directed by Michael Anderson and written by Chris...

and the 2005 Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

 film Munich

Munich (film)

Munich is a 2005 historical fiction film about the Israeli government's secret retaliation attacks after the massacre of Israeli athletes by the Black September terrorist group during the 1972 Summer Olympics. The film stars Eric Bana and was produced and directed by Steven Spielberg...

.