Killing a King, Dan Ephron
Killing a King, Dan Ephron
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Killing a King
The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel

Author: Dan Ephron

Narrator: Assaf Cohen

Unabridged: 9 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/19/2016

Synopsis

A riveting story about the murder that changed a nation: the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak RabinThe assassination of Yitzhak Rabin remains the single most consequential event in Israel’s recent history and one that fundamentally altered the trajectory for both Israel and the Palestinians. Killing a King relates the parallel stories of Rabin and his stalker, Yigal Amir, over the two years leading up to the assassination, as one of them planned political deals he hoped would lead to peace—and the other plotted murder.Dan Ephron, who reported from the Middle East for much of the past two decades, covered both the rally where Rabin was killed and the subsequent murder trial. He describes how Rabin, a former general who led the army in the Six Day War of 1967, embraced his nemesis, Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, and set about trying to resolve the twentieth century’s most vexing conflict. He recounts in agonizing detail how extremists on both sides undermined the peace process with ghastly violence. And he reconstructs the relentless scheming of Amir, a twenty-five-year-old law student and Jewish extremist who believed that Rabin’s peace effort amounted to a betrayal of Israel and the Jewish people.As Amir stalked Rabin over many months, the agency charged with safeguarding the Israeli leader missed key clues, overlooked intelligence reports, and then failed to protect him at the critical moment, in November 1995. It was the biggest security blunder in the agency’s history.Through the prism of the assassination, much about Israel today comes into focus, from the paralysis in peacemaking to the fraught relationship between current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama. Based on Israeli police reports, interviews, confessions, and the cooperation of both Rabin’s and Amir’s families, Killing a King is a tightly coiled narrative that reaches an inevitable, shattering conclusion. One can’t help but wonder what Israel would look like today had Rabin lived.

About Dan Ephron

Dan Ephron is an award-winning writer who has served as the Jerusalem bureau chief for Newsweek and the Daily Beast.

About Assaf Cohen

Assaf Cohen is an AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator. He has appeared in various plays, short films, and television shows. He grew up in Palo Alto and attended UC Berkeley where he earned a bachelor’s degree in integrative biology. He continued his classical training by earning a master of fine arts in acting from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University under the instruction of legendary acting instructor William Esper.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Steven on October 25, 2015

The past few weeks has witnessed an increase in violence between Palestinians and Israelis. Palestinians have resorted to lone wolf knife attacks against innocent Israeli citizens and the Israeli response has been to kill the perpetrators on the spot. The lack of any progress toward negotiations is......more

Goodreads review by Jean on February 07, 2016

Dan Ephron was the Jerusalem Bureau Chief for Newsweek magazine. Ephron did intensive research for this book. He searched through court records, obtained confessional material, conducted family interviews, and dissected police reports in order to piece together the story. The book narrows in on the......more

Goodreads review by Barry on December 26, 2017

This book is very similar to Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin. It is an in depth chronicle of the intertwining paths of the hunter (Amir) and the hunted (Rabin). One of the key assumptions this book shattered was that Shabak (......more

Goodreads review by Jeffrey (Akiva) on December 24, 2016

How quickly memory fades. Rabin was assassinated in 1995. In some ways, it feels so long ago and in others it feels fresh. In some ways the world in which those events transpired is an ancient memory, in others, it's more relevant than ever. Reading Ephron's excellent book, I turned melancholy and ph......more

Goodreads review by Kristy on August 07, 2017

One Saturday afternoon in early November of 1995 I was watching CNN in my home in the Chicago suburbs. I don't know if the draw that day was my burgeoning fascination with politics and current events, or the fact that Darth Vader's voice announced "This is CNN" every 20 minutes, but there I was. And......more

Quotes

“In Killing a King, Ephron digs up important details that give new understanding to those terrible events and their enduring impact. His authoritative account is both a sharply etched political thriller and a meditation on all that has gone wrong in the Promised Land.” Glenn Frankel, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist

“A chilling reminder that sometimes an assassin’s bullet really can alter the course of history.” Kai Bird, New York Times bestselling author

“Exceptional…An electrifying political narrative twinned with an old-fashioned crime story―of the sort that ought to be taught in journalism schools for its restraint, pacing, and expert creation of suspense…The book is a Greek tragedy told in split screen, a frame-for-frame chronicle of a deplorable death foretold.” New York Times

“If the story of Yitzhak Rabin and Yigal Amir has anything to teach, it’s that individuals matter…The opportunity that Rabin was trying to seize―however small―was there for a moment, and it may never come again.” New Yorker

“A clear-eyed account…captures the way politics in this young and tiny country are uniquely and deeply personal.” Economist (London)

“In a crisp and lively narrative, Ephron walks the reader through the assassination itself and its aftermath…[and] infuses his book with relevance by circling back to bigger questions.” New York Times Book Review

“Carefully reported, clearly presented, concise, and gripping…a reminder that what happened on a Tel Aviv sidewalk twenty years ago is as important to understanding Israel as any of its wars.” Washington Post

“The best account to date of the Rabin assassination and its aftermath.” Publishers Weekly

“Tells two stories in page-turning detail…Fascinating characterizations of real people and intrigue make this book appealing to readers of both fiction and nonfiction thrillers and anyone interested in the history of Israel.” Library Journal

“In a single moment, the Jewish zealot Yigal Amir derailed the Oslo negotiations and forever altered the destinies of two nations…In tense, gripping prose, the author dissects Amir’s background…In a book with broad appeal, Ephron cogently analyzes the origins and ramifications of a national tragedy he reported on as a young journalist.” Kirkus Reviews

Awards

  • New York Times   Bestseller
  • New York Times Book Review Notable Book
  • High Brow Magazine Best Book
  • Los Angeles Times Book Prize
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